Day 69
Panning for gold using traditional techniques. My hands are cold.
We drove from Greymouth to Franz Joseph in the morning. Along the way we stopped in Ross, which is a still functioning gold mining town. At the gold mining museum, we paid NZ$8.50 so I could pan for gold in the traditional way. You’re guaranteed to find a few flakes of gold, as well as a piece of jade.
Jackpot! I wonder if the gold I found is worth more than $8.50 I paid to do this.
After panning for gold, we continued on our way to Franz Joseph. We arrived in time to do a half day walk on the glacier:
A view of the Franz Joseph glacier from the valley floor.
Now that our crampons are on, we ready to walk on the glacier.
Standing on top of the Franz Joseph glacier.
Ready to dig us a path out of here...
....actually, most of the digging was done by this guy, who cut steps for us as we went along.
