Hodge on the rocks
Trip Start
Jun 12, 2006
1
88
173
Trip End
Jul 01, 2007
Franz Joseph Glacier, New Zealand
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Finally caught up with my blog and all the pictures I have taken of this magnificent country.
Today I climb a glacier, which was cool enough, but the most impressive thing is the rainforest surrounding it and the Southern Alps in the distant.
I had a pretty relaxed day, 10am start and 4pm finish.
The glacier was great fun, its the steepest commercial glacier in the world and the only accessible without staying at altitude. The glacier is one of only a couple in the world which is advancing at about a meter a day, 7 meters in the middle....therefore the thing is always moving. Ice crashing off the terminal face, water running along tracks so the guides are constantly having to cut new tracks.
The group was fairly small at 10, but I was slightly disappointed at how anal there where about safety. Coming from South America where you can pretty much do what you want, within reason. Here they seemed so safety conscious. This gives me greater ambition to go back to Argentina and climb the glaciers in Patagonia, apparently there you can slide along the glacier in bin bags and do other crazy stuff.
Ever way it was still pretty cool, practiced a bit of Spanish with the Argentinian guide and had great views over the Alps and across the valley.
Few caught up and now in Queenstown and into serious drinking mode......
