Franz Joseph (4-5 Dec 2010)

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Saturday 4th December 2010 (Mahinapua – Franz Joseph)

Today we had an insight into life in the New Zealand wilderness at the bushman centre watching a DVD about the deer industry, although all we really wanted to do was feed the animals. We walked around the strange museum with booby trap water sprays everywhere.

Our final destination today was Franz Joseph, where we booked ice climbing for tomorrow morning before being whisked off Kayaking on Lake Mapourika. Wayne our guide was really laid back and the whole experience was relaxed and enjoyable, floating though still rivers with a bit of a hard push at the end against the cross winds.

We got back to our hostel just in time for a dip in the hot tub before dinner.

Sunday 5th December 2010 (Mahinapua – Franz Joseph)

Our excitement about Ice Climbing today was diminished when we found out it had been cancelled due to weather (not that it looked that bad to us). We were given the option of a refund, or switch to full day Ice hiking with the Stray bus, so we took option b (and saved £100).

Jason our guide (and stunt double for Legolas in L.O.T.R.) slowly led us up the mountain and showed us how to put on our crampons when we reached the ice. As we were in the first group - reserved only for the fit and adventurous - it took a long time to get anywhere with breaks at regular intervals whilst Jason cut new steps into the ice with his ice pick. The optical illusion was incredible, from the valley floor it had looked a really short distance to the Glacier, and it looked really small, but once we got higher up the glacier and looked back over the valley it seemed like it was miles away, and we were totally encompassed by a mass of compacted snow in all directions. Joanne felt that Jason was being a little overprotective, so she played a trick on him at one point, standing next to the edge and pretending to fall by screaming when he wasn’t looking – his reaction was really funny, but he was less than impressed with the stunt! We had a few climbs into ice caves, which was really impressive with crisp blue surroundings, but we did have to wait around a long time for access while steps were carved, which was a shame as we were wearing crampons, and didn’t really need steps.

We really enjoyed the whole day, the climbing would have been more technical, however, we got to trek much higher up the glacier into the cleaner snow.

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Photos

Lake Mahanipua
Letting wife do all the work - the way it should be!

Comments

[Mark]

Couple of great days
but surely too cold for shorts on a glacier!!