Bring on the glacier!
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2011
1
123
289
Trip End
Sep 06, 2012
Where I stayed
Franz Josef, South Island, New Zealand
Monday, February 20, 2012
We had to be at the company office at 8 am so we could be fitted with all of our equipment, such as boots, socks, waterproof trousers, waterproof jackets, crampons, hats and gloves. Once we had everything, we were driven up to the glacier car park, where we were split into 5 groups, based on physical ability. I decided to choose the middle group, only because I didn't want to hold anyone up if my back started to play up. When we got to the start of the walk, everyone was stripping off as it was pretty warm. I took off my rain jacket and fleece as I had a sweat on.
This hike was going to be awesome. This glacier is unique as you have the rainforest which runs right up to the side of it. The glacier is over 12 kilometres long and is one of the most fastest moving glaciers in the world with growth of as much as 1.5 metres a day.
The start of the hike was through rainforest for about 10 minutes until we got into the wide open space at the start of the glacier. It then took another 45 minutes to actually reach the bottom of the glacier. Once we got there, we all had to put on our crampons to enable us to walk over the ice and not fall over. Our guide showed us how to walk on the ice correctly as you can do damage and fall over and maybe hurt yourself.
The hike itself was awesome. We had to carve out steps into the ice so that we could climb up and over the ice. There were caves and holes and all sorts that we saw. Some of the ice was such a bright blue colour. This is to do with the light and oxygen getting into the ice which gives off this blue light. It was pretty hard work and I was happy when we stopped around 1 pm to sit on the ice and have lunch. The weather wasn't so kind to us. By the time we stopped for lunch, we had had quite a bit of rain and it became quite cold. I now had my fleece back on, hat and gloves and was still pretty cold.
Whilst we were eating lunch, we were joined by a couple of native parrots. They were quite odd looking. They were completely green and very long beaks. They are called Kea's. They were trying to steal our lunch but they didn't get their way. After lunch we climbed further up the glacier. I think we must have climbed around a 1/3 of the glacier, but it looked as though we had climbed higher. We had some fantastic views up there, but I must admit the view from the skydive was much better.
The hike back down the glacier was a lot quicker and by the time we got to the bottom, the rain started to pour. We all got completely soaked but that didn't matter as we were all going back to the hostel. By the time we went back to the office and gave back all of our kit, it must have been around 5.30 pm. Everyone was heading off to the hot pools as we had free entry, but I was so tired and wanted to type up my blogs, so I went back to the hostel. Unfortunately, the internet is extremely slow in Franz and I only managed to get a couple of blogs typed up before it crashed so I gave up. I didn't even have any dinner that night as I was completely exhausted and too tired to do anything. I finally went to bed at 8.30 pm. I think the adrenalin from yesterdays skydive and todays hike has completely wiped me out.
Comments
Very cool...literally!!! Me well Jell!!! xxx