Ali goes up a hill and comes down a glacier

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So today was glacier day, and it's been brilliant. I've wanted to see a glacier for years to now and to have finally experienced one and been mesmerised by it is just amazing. The constant reminder of the force of nature is truly humbling. 
Fox glacier is one of the only glaciers in the world to be surrounded by rainforest. Now I knew that fact before I went but I hadn't appreciated what it meant. The walk up, please note up, to the surface of the glacier saw us walking up the morain to the terminal face (get me with the lingo), well not that near because it's too dangerous, then moving to the left of the glacier itself to walk up the hill on the side, in 3 minutes you go from standing beneath a wall of ice to standing in a humid verdent rainforest. Talk about not knowing what to wear, I went from 4 layers to one in 7 steps. 
Now back to the up, up 800 steps from the morain to the glacier itself all under the rainforset canopy. Within those 800 steps I saw lichen, moss, waterfalls, creapers and parrots, the worlds only alpine parrots, Kia, these mostly green birds are half way between parrot and hawk can be seen contrasted against the ice with blue and red flashes benith there wings. They were also totally unafraid coming up to the unsuspecting victim looking cute and adorable, then squaking like a spoilt child when they didn't get any food. Cheeky. 
After an hour we finally made it on to the ice, what surprised me the most was the noise, I'm so used to snow and ice muffling sound, those morings you know it's snowed before you open the curtains simply by the void left in normal sound. The glacier was so noisy, Constant running, dribbling, splashing water. Rocks rolling and crashing down  from the walls around. Add to that the crunching of 12 pairs of crampons on a huge mr frosty and you might be somewhere close.
We spent 4 hours on the ice moving between the terminal face and the ice flow about 2 km of the total 13, there were crevices, tunnels, Molins (like little water holes spirelled into the floor) and hugh holes in the floor. 
There are so many different colours too, the top is White but can be covered with red sand from the Australian deserts, or mud squeezed up from closed crevaces but undeneath it's that fantastic turquoise blue. So clear crisp and fresh it's just stunning what more can I say. 
On getting back to the hostel I decided to make a ritual out of having a sauna after dealing with ice, the first time was in slovenia and now it's compulsary. But man it was good, cold and damp all day then hot and dry in the evening, what more could you ask for, well a delicious 3 course meal didn't go down to badly either. Chicken noodle cuppa soup, microwavable spaghetti bol and a banana. And do you know what it was great!    

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