The Glaciers

---

Decided to have a mini break and head to the Glaciers as Spring has finally kicked in and the weather is absolutely beauitful.

Woke up in the morning ready to start the drive, and the weather had turned from beautiful, clear and sunny, to cloudy, raining and vile. May as well be in England looking out of your carival at the rain.

As our housemates began making a fire and dragging their duvets onto the couches, me and Oz decided to brave the weather and go anyway. How bad can the rain be??!

As soon as we got on the road, it didn't stop, which meant 6 hours of aqua-planing. The views however were stunning, and because of the rain, magnificant waterfalls formed and came gushing down from the mountains as we literally drove through some of the waterfalls which crept onto the windy highways. The rivers were starting to flood onto the roads, so one there no turning back. Even the cows and sheep were knee high in water and having to wade through it.

We arrived in Franz Josef (still raining), and checked into a hostel. Nothing to do but go to the pub, and drink until the rain clears up.....could be in England!

Went for a walk around the view points of the Glacier, and went across an Indiana Jones style bridge, which swang as you walked across it, with gushing water flowing right beneath you. Was very loud and made you feel sea sick just walking across it. As we got into the middle, Oz tried to keep swinging us on the Bridge, but luckily it didn't colapse....we just got very very wet.

The morning of the trek started off raining and gloomy, but as soon as we got off the coach, we lucked out and the rain had stopped. We were given waterproof trousers, jackets, socks, hats, mittens, boots and crampons in a sexy red bum bag. It took us about 30 minutes to go through the forest and over the rocks to get to the glacier, and then the only way was up.

We put on our crampons and looked at the carved ice steps which the guides make for us to climb up. It looked ok getting up, but the getting down looked hairy. We started climbing up, using some ropes and the carved steps and then dug our spikes in to make sure we don't slide. We could see crevaces and some streams running through the ice. If you looked up you could see dozens of waterfalls through all the surrounding hills. Luckily, as it had been raining, the ice appeared blue around us making it even more spectacular.

We spent a few hours up in the glaciers and then made our way back down again. On the way down, you had to point your crampons directly down and stamp hard into the ground, which was a little worrying at first as you were relying on them to stick. No broken legs. We did hear the roof of a cave collapse though on our way down, which sounded like a huge clap of thunder. I'm just glad I wasn't in it.

If I could do it all again, I would go heli-hiking and get a helicopter to the untracked parts of the glacier, but that costs mega bucks, so maybe not.

The next day we went to Fox Glacier and took a walk to the view point. This was equally as stunning. We also went for a walk around Lake Matheson, which has a mirror reflection of Mount Cook and the surrounding Alps. Unfortunately the ducks kept gliding through the lake, completely breaking the glass like images we were trying to capture. No consideration these ducks.

---