Glacier trekking

Trip Start Jul 16, 2007
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Trip End Jul 15, 2008


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Flag of New Zealand  , South Island,
Saturday, May 10, 2008

Friday we are up for the glacier walk on Franz Joseph. Sarah, Em and Caroline have opted for the half day - which leaves even earlier he he! So Jessie (our other room mate) and I head off at 9.15 to get wet and cold. The first challenge is to get kitted out. We have all sorts of paraphernalia; hat, gloves, Gore-tex jacket, trousers, boots, woolen socks and crampons. We are looking quite the part by the time we are fully kitted out and sitting on the bus for our 10 min drive down the road to the start of the walk.

We start the trek on terra firma, following the river in the direction of the glacier we can see ahead. Its looks deceptively close, but apparently is a few km walk to get there, as we find out climbing over rocks and down ladders. Sure enough it 'pretty much' takes over an hour. 'Sweet as bro!'. Half way along this we split into 2 groups of c20 according to our self assessed ability. I would rather be in 1 but the split has to be even Digging a bench for lunch
Digging a bench for lunch
 . All the guys are adamant they have to be in 1 so not to look weak, and the girls generally are over modest about their ability and want to be in group 2. Eventually some guys are chosen at random and forced to join our group, so are a little sulky as we continue on to the base of the glacier. Finally we reach the ice point where we split into 2 further groups again and attach our crampons ready for the climb.

We start the climb up some steps made of ice. They look awesome, the bright blue colour shimmering as we work our way up. The guide keeps using his pickaxe on odd steps - we're sure the steps were fine its just for his macho image! But it amuses us. That is until he's busy hacking away and lets go of the axe as it flys out over his head behind him. Sudden fear across everyones faces. We all duck for cover as it flys through the air - thank goodness slightly away from us. It could have been a sad end to the trip. We all stand well back now!

We continue up the glacier, passing pools of water, deep crevices. We get to a narrow tunnel we crawl through. We are assured it is natural! The tunnel is long and eerie and a little claustrophobic even if bright and blue light inside. We continue through gorges out of the ice, climb steps made by Rhino, the guide, to scale the steep walls out of dips and cracks. We climb down to a bigger tunnel we can stand in. In between times we have a couple of lunch breaks on the ice. The first one i make a Little seat out of the ice with the axe. The second has a 20m drop next to us which makes the guide very nervous every time anyone goes near it! Even the drizzlie rain has stopped and the sun is out by the end of our walk.
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