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Published: November 21st 2007
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Franz Josef 1
A bit of a tight squeeze these ice caves! Kia Ora!
Right, this is coming hot on the heels of the last blog published just a min ago so remember to read that one too if you hit this one first!
After a fond farewell to Les we continued our journey south, stopping for one of the many random tours you are obliged to do on the Kiwi Experience. This one was a tour of the Bushman's Centre in Pukekura. The tour showed us how people make a living in the west coast and it was quite funny to see footage of guys throwing themselves out of helicopters and landing on deer to catch them for farming - especially when they missed! Francois was lucky enough to feed the massive boar that lives in the centre but didn't feel so lucky once he ran out of bread and the pig butted him with his tusks - ouch!
We then carried on south into glacier land and the scenery was just stunning. We passed lots of kettle lakes which were created as glaciers retreated and left huge chunks of ice behind that melted and formed into deep lakes. Eventually we arrived at the Franz Josef Glacier Village which
Bushman's 1
Francois vs the pig - my money's on the pig! was a lot smaller than I expected - it's not much bigger than Evanton! We headed up to a lookout for our first glimpse of the glacier which looks like someone left a massive tap on then Iceman came along and zapped the water to ice. We were told that a glacier is simply the remaining snow that summer melt has been unable to remove from the cooler heights up in the mountains. Each season another layer of this surplus snow is added and time and sheer weight fuse the snow crystals into clear ice. It's quite amazing to see and apprently NZ is one of only two places in the world where glaciers descent into the forest (the other being Patagonia). Currently, however, the glacier is receding at approximately 30cm per day, a big part of which is due to global warming. Quite interesting I thought (or is that my inner geek showing?!)
Heather and I booked on to do a full day climb of the glacier the following day and then, since it was raining, hit the pub. Big mistake! At 4am I made myself go to bed but this didn't help me too much when my
Franz Josef 2
Our first glimpse of the glacier alarm went off four hours later and I had to get up for a nine hour climb - nightmare! But I managed to get out of bed without complaining too much (though Heather might tell a different story!) and headed off to meet our guide and get kitted out for the day. The first hour was a living hell for me but luckily the fresh air and exertion must have speeded up the hangover because I felt fine after that.
We spent a tiring three and a half hours climbing up the first part of the glacier, walking up ice steps that our guide was cutting ahead of us. Then we stopped for lunch and I had to defend my sandwiches from an alpine parrot who was intent on getting to them and had no fear at all of me!
The next few hours were just amazing - we spent our time exploring crevasses and ice caves - some of which were incredibly tight - it felt like I was walking through an ice cube! One girl even got stuck in one of the crevasses, which led to a tense 15 minutes rescue effort as two of the
Franz Josef 3
Greedy little alpine parrot - apparently with a craving for ham sandwiches! guides literally had to cut her out of the ice with their pick axes. Intense!
The views from higher up the glacier were incredible, just massive waves and waves of ice towering over us and surrounding us. The photos don't capture how it looked at all which is a shame, I guess you'll just have to all pop over and see it for yourselves!
The last few hours were possibly some of the longest of my life as we trudged wearily back to the base of the glacier. That night was a very early one for me, I was completely and utterly knackered but so glad I had managed the climb. Yay me!
The next day we hit the road again, stopping first for a walk round the breathtaking Lake Matheson in which you see the perfect mirror reflection of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps - simply stunning.
After picking up Liam and Flah who had done a skydive over Fox Glacier that morning, we headed into the mountains and bid farewell to the coastline. The scenery changed dramatically as we crossed the bridge at the Gates of Haast and travelled up the Haast Pass
Franz Josef 4
Heather and I make it through a crevass into the Mount Aspiring National Park. The Pass used to be used by the Maori to trade Poumanu (Greenstone). We stopped briefly at Makarora for lunch and then continued on up through the mountains to Wanaka. I think that that hour long drive is one of the most spectacular of my life - the scenery is astounding. We stopped at Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea for some pics and then headed into Wanaka itself.
Although it was Saturday night, no-one was up for a big night since we knew we were going for it the following night in Queenstown. So I took a wee wander round the town on my tod and then joined the others for a few glasses of wine before heading to bed early - very excited about reaching Queenstown the next day! But I'll leave all that for the next blog... xx
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Brenda
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Kisses for NZ!
Hey I know those legs!!! Ha ha, you got good ol Mike as your guide too eh? Yeah hes lovely, no doubt he loved the rescue effort! Enjoy Queenstown melove, its my fav part of NZ, simply stunning! just like Mike's legs!!! B xox