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Published: July 15th 2007
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Day 4 of Thelma and Louise's adventure on the road began at 7am!(it was decided that I was Thelma and Anna was Louise-I end up with Brad Pitt)Much to Anna's horror it was a cold and frosty morning but we had had a toasty nights sleep with the heater on full blast and the hot water bottles nice and full.We had been chatting to the boys in our dorm the night before and they had booked a glacier walk for tomorrow,which is what we wanted to do but wasn't sure about doing a full day of walking or just to be wet flannels and do the half day,but we couldn't book anything until the day we did it anyway.The boys walk was at 8.15am (the thought of gearing up to hike up a glacier at this time made Anna's curly fringe stand on end) and so they got up about 7am-(bless them,scrabbling around in the dark thinking we were asleep so didn't put the light on and trying to put their pants on in the dark).We got up about the same time (ok I got up) and had a shower-Anna dived deeper into her snuggly communal duvet even further and
protested that she couldn't possibly get up before 7.30am because it just wasn't right,or something.
We quickly got ready,without breakfast after our traumatic trip to the kitchen the night before,with over-flowing bins of left-over food and dish-cleaners soaked in old bean juice.Not somewhere we fancied spreading marg on our toast or sipping hot tea out of the mugs!We headed out to reception and asked about the walks.It was freezing outside and was the first time we had woken up to ice and slippery paths which was quite nice.There was only half or full day walks left,so we reluctantly chose the full day as we would be getting the most out of our money and we thought we were hardcore enough to handle it.......at least we got a lunch break...
We were to meet at the Glacier reception at 9.00 as our walk started at 9.15 and went to the supermarket to buy supplies,and spent far too much money on far too much food.The lady who we booked it from said we would need a full packed lunch-now telling Anna and myself that a full packed lunch was not a good idea as we made good use of this
necessary requirement for the trip and bought bread,lots of........chocolate,nuts,fruit,toffees,cheese,water and breakfast bars-and started eating it on the way to the reception...
We arrived and had to be kitted out with boots,coats,socks and gloves.My boots were soaking already which was nice and looked like ex-army boots so the lezza look was falling firmly in place by now.We were ready to go and met Dan who was going to be our guide (very cute) and hopped on the bus to make the short ride to the glacier foot where we would start the hike.It was such a nice day-the sun was out and although it was cold and frosty,it was still warm in the sunshine and I had put on about 8 layers in case I got cold-I should know by now I'm one of life's sweaty people.We set off on the 2.7km walk to the foot of the glacier where we stopped to attach our 'spikes' which were attached to the under-side of the boots and gripped the ice.The trousers tucked into the socks completed the village-idiot-look we were aiming for and the group set off.We were split into groups-experienced and intermediate,and not being expert glacier-walkers,we sidled into group 2,seeing
as I can't even get out of a small swimming pool without slipping and cracking my knee we thought it was best.
The glacier was beautiful.We clambered up the first leg of the walk to the main part of the glacier.It was very slippery but nice and warm in the sunshine.Dan introduced himself properly and explained lots of interesting stuff about the glacier-about how long it had been walked on,how the glacier moves,what happens to the shape of the land and that we were standing on the egde of tectonic plates and could see the crack in the side of the mountain.He told us to form an orderly line behind him and to stick to the path.I ran to the front,dragging Anna behind me and took up my position behind him (where I remained for most of the day) as the sight of his pert little bottom was enough to spur me on for the rest of the trip.He went ahead of us with his pic-axe,clearing the ice away and making sure the path was safe.My hero!!!(I even said "wow you must be really strong!!" -how embarrasingly cringy.Further into the glacier was stunning.The ice that had been compressed and
wasn't exposed to the sun was icy blue and beautiful.We had to squeeze through small cracks in the ice-not easy with lovely womanly hips like Anna and myself but we managed to pop through.Anna had a few hairy moments,especially going downhill and at one point I thought we were going to need helicopter assistance but she was ok and trooped on.We stopped for lunch and marched on to the top which had an amazing view of the valley below us.We didn't stop taking pictures as usual!!
Dan carried on hacking his way through the eyes and I perved all the while,much to Anna's disgust.I even gave him my chocolate bar which is sooo unlike me.He told us that there were sometimes icey pools that you could swim in but the thought of stripping off to our pants in the middle of a glacier with no towel or sauna for afterwards was not appealing and thankfully we didn't find pools anyway,but one poor girls in our group slipped off the path and onto what she thought was solid ice,which wasn't and slipped into the pool up to her waist.Thankfully I hadn't fallen once which was suprising seeing as I am
very clumsy!Oh no,I skipped round the glassy paths like a sprightly mountain goat but did manage to hurt my knee swinging on a rope handle.
We started our decent about 3.30pm and the sun was already started to disappear over the mountain.The walk down was very slippy and seemed to take ages to get back,but soon we were safely back on the bus,with soggy socks and trousers and dripping noses but we had had such a nice day.The legs ached abit and Anna declared that she wanted a massage.Pretending to ignore her in case she thought I would do the honours,I suggested we go to the 'Blue-Ice' bar that Dan said was a good night out (plus he was going to be there).
Totally skint and not wanting to step one foot in the communal kitchen from hell,we dashed back to the room when we had de-geared ourselves and grabbed our bag of cheese and crackers and sadly sat in the car with the heater and the radio on,eating chunks of cheese and crackers in silence like two old codgers.Cor this night on the town was blowing my head off!!!!We had had an amazing day on the glacier
but our legs ached and we were so tired,but we are now writing our blogs, and I am dragging Anna to this bar tonight whether she has trench foot or not.Next stop,Wanaka.Until tomorrow!!!
Beano x x x
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