More around Franz Joseph

Today was another rather rainy west coast day. Instead of returning to the glacier I chose two other hikes. The first was the Tatare Tunnels hike. It was a hike up to an old tunnel system. It was a 1000 foot tunnel through solid rock that was used to bring water into the valley for mining. The hike went up a nice valley.    

Finally it came to the tunnel enterance.  The literature said you could hike up the tunnel if you didn’t mind getting you feet wet. I’d  worn my water shoes and brought my tourch (NZ for flashlight) so I stated in.   

It was a long narrow tunnel in solid rock. There was about six inches of water flowing down the tunnel. 

I went in about 100 feet to where I could no longer see the enterance. It was dark. I figured there was no way I was going 1000 feet plus it was a bit scary so I turned around and headed out. 

The second hike was to a gorge over a river that was coming from the glacier. It was a great hike through the mountains that ended in a swing bridge over a river with a cool colored river.