We were supposed to fly to Franz Joseph Glacier, but we ended up with bad weather there, so we redirected to Mt Cool instead (took a lot of advance planning to make that happen, but I had spent days looking up both locations, had all the phone numbers on hand, and the cell phones to call for go/no go decisions).
True South Flights confirmed with us that weather would allow them to pick us up again later that day, and they flew us to Mt Cook as the clouds were lifting:

Mt Cook airport

We then got some basic gear and transfered to the heli hike:

hard to tell that this is all a glacier with the dirt on top

but it looks like this

we got nice crampons to walk on the ice

nice cave

And after a good time on the ice, it was time to fly back off the glacier. I got a front seat for the flight back, so I got better pictures:

this is the edge of the glacier that melts into a lake, with a few visible icebergs

We had a bit of time before our glacier explorer (boat tour on the ice lake), so we went to the visitor center, which was quite good:

nice picture of the glacier

Next, we took the our tour bus for the glacier explorer to go look at the melting glacier in the lake it created:

I tried to take a souvenir home, but somehow it didn't quite make it

that's what the glacier actually looks like at the point it breaks into icebergs

We then spent a bit of time in the lodge museum while waiting for the plane:

Last, but not least, a few pictures of the plane trip back:

back in queenstown airport

This was a good day, not cheap with the plane ride, but awesome visit of the glacier.