Franz Josef 2nd attempt

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After the 5 hour drive, we checked into Glowworm hostel, where we got a family room with a t.v. and I secured the double bed (only fair seeing as Will always gets the nice bed). The next day, rising early and feeling fresh, we made our way to the Glacier Walk Centre, this time with blue skies and sunshine, and not a hint of rain. In fact, it was probably the best day weather wise we'd had in New Zealand so far!

The walk to the base of the Glacier this time didn't involve walking through knee-deep rivers, but was much more enjoyable. When we got to the base, we split into 4 different ability groups (we chose the fastest paced) and put on our crampons and headed up what can only be described as a man made ice stairway in the centre of the glacier, with our guide in the lead, hacking away at the ice to make it more climber friendly. The first 5 minutes were the hardest, involving the removal of several layers that we had been advised to wrap up in. We could now see why all the guides were wearing shorts. A few minutes later, we had got used to the pace of the walk, and as we ascended, had more time to catch our breath, as the guide had to spend longer cutting pathways in the ice.

The view of the glacier itself is spectacular and on a sunny day it is well worth the 40 minute walk to the base just for the views, but it is not until you start to climb onto the glacier that the views back down into the valley become breathtaking. I'm in Rotorua at the moment, coming towards the end of my time in New Zealand, and this glacier walk has to be the best thing I've done here.

I've put a few pictures of us climbing the glacier here:

Glacier Pics

We chose the full day walk, and if you can stretch to it, i definitely would. The half dayers don't reach the really blue ice like in some of our photos, and it wasn't until right at the top that we discovered an ice cave (these caves come and go on a daily basis apparently, so we were lucky to find one). Lunch was taken on a massive rock at the highest point we reached, and the skies were still perfectly blue, and the views were sensational. Apparently, when the weather is so good in the morning, it normally clouds up by lunch time, so our efforts of driving back to do the walk had really paid off.

The 2 guides from the top 2 groups tried to cut a completely new path in the ice that our group would have been able to name for future walks, which would have been pretty cool, but they deemed it too dangerous, and so we headed back down another way, which is where we came across the ice cave.

After Danny B had finished falling over and sliding on his arse almost off the face of the glacier, we all crawled through the ice cave, making for some great photo opportunities. Further down the glacier, we had to squeeze through some really small cravaces, some of which were such a tight squeeze that if you'd been any bigger than me, you would have got stuck!

After more amazing sights of mountains and ice around every corner, we reached the base of the glacier, and headed back to the bus.

after some grup and a film, we hit the sack, ready for our beast of a drive in the morning to get the car back in time, but it had been worth it.

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