Stealing a page from the Dixie Chicks

After a lackluster day on Thursday (which I'll chalk up to exhaustion/burnout/lack of sleep/overcast skies), Friday dawned bright and clear, and after lying in my tent for 11 hours, I think I had recovered some much-needed energy. For whatever reason, I ended up with a Dixie Chicks song in my head:

Some days you gotta dance,

Live it up when you get the chance.

When the world ain't makin' no sense,

Then you're getting just a little too tense.

You've gotta loosen up those chains and dance!

I opted to interpret "dance" as "go on a helicopter ride and land on a glacier." I mean, when was the last time I had a chance to do that? (Never). And Fox Glacier wasn't nearly as overrun with tourists as Franz Josef had been, so I wasn't quite so revolted by the idea. And I wouldn't want to disappoint the folks back home (especially the ones from Flight Sim).

So after a late bit o' brekkie (I had slept in until 8) I headed over to the campground office, which also served as a booking office for area attractions. Indeed, there was a $90 USD 20-minute flight taking off at 10 with an opening. Sold!

The flight was wonderful. My favorite part was the descent, since we flew low over the icefall area of the glacier. It wasn't as rewarding as having hiked up there myself, but the thrill of the flight itself was something I hadn't quite experienced before.

After the flight I got on my bike around 11 a.m. Well rested and excited about riding again, I zoomed down the 110 km to Haast and even had enough energy for the 14 km side-trip to Haast beach at sunset. It was one of those perfect days...