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Sometimes a lack of planning can be a very positive thing. I went to Christchurch because it was cheap and I needed to get moving again. While there I met some great people and even bumped into a friend I met a couple weeks ago in Wellington. That was all fun but I knew I needed to skip town again, so I booked a car for Monday morning with no plans. Originally I was on my way to Queenstown via the east coast but after looking through the brochure display I realized that the Franz Joseph Glacier was on my way to Queenstown but via the west coast. What a piece of gold that information was. I have seen the glacier hikes on television and have wanted to do it for some time.
Monday morning I found myself patiently waiting for my rental company to pick me up at 10:30 am, but they didn't come. Turns out the car was booked but my shuttle to get it was not. So I was picked up at noon. I will admit to being rather angered by this because I did have a 6 hour drive ahead of me. But once I jumped
in my Daihatsu or Su as I call her and realized that I had a CD player I was all good again. Su is a five speed manual and it has been some time since I have used a manual. Su and I got off to a jumpy start but I did manage to improve my shifting skills.
Six hours from Christchurch to Franz Josef town. That is six hours of climbing mountain switchbacks through sun and rain. In places the speed limit was as low as 35km/h and in some corners the suggested speed could be as low as 15km/h. So I made some time in the valleys where the roads are flatter and straighter. It was after dark when I pulled into Franz Josef town. I found a hostel for the night, packed a lunch for my hike that I had previously booked and went to bed early. My alarm was set for 6:45 am but I was awake well before then. Got my gear together and found a little cafe that was open. Had some breakfast and coffee then scooted next door to the tour guide offices. So about 35 or 40 of us got suited
up in our splash pants, raincoats, hats, mittens, socks, wet boots and fanny packs (to hold our spikes known as crampons). Jumped on the bus for a 10 minute ride to our starting point.
We began with a 10 minute walk through the little rainforest to reach the valley. At first sight the glacier didn't look so big. It got put into perspective quickly when our guides told us it was 2km away and would take 45 minutes to reach the glacier base. We walked along the rocks in the valley and through creeks and even through a quick moving shallow river. With wet boots we walked past waterfalls falling from the mountain tops above and towards our glacier challenge that got larger and larger with each step. The glacier was huge and after we put our crampons (spikes) on we were headed up a semi staircase carved into the glacier face. We held on to the rope and very carefully making sure to kick our crampons into the ice. We had already been split into two groups, one group was to be the faster leading group and the other would follow at a slower place. I joined the
first group because I knew I wanted to see as much as possible.
It took a little while to get used to using the crampons. With each step you had to kick your foot to get the spikes to grip, you had to keep your feet straight and a safe distance apart to avoid tripping or injuring your other foot. We got rained on for the first hour or so, the clouds were very low and the whole sky was grey. It began to freezing rain at one point but above us in the mountains you could see the snow falling. We stopped for a lunch break and when we started hiking again the clouds slowly separated and we had sunshine. The rest of the day was beautiful. We spent about 6 hours on the glacier itself. We passed through crevasses so narrow that we had to walk with our feet point forward while keeping our torso sideways. The tightest fit of the day was a crevasse that Brett our guide had found on our lunch break. It looked no wider then one foot maybe a foot and a half at best. Next thing Brett was getting it ready
by knocking some of the ice from the top down into to create a walkway. Sure enough after lunch we were walking one foot in front of each other, shoulders turned in with a ten foot blue ice wall surrounding us. The crevasse was about 25 feet long and I was the last through for our team, which was a bad thing. We had been picking on team two all day by getting snowballs ready and waiting for them at narrow places. With team two at my heels my teammates were throwing a vast number of snowballs in this little space. My team was predominantly Irish, so we named this crevasse The Great Craic. Craic is an Irish word used to describe fun. For example "That's good craic".
The snowball fight escalated on a few more occasions. In one little valley we got cluttered and the snowball fight got rather hectic. My favorite being when team one and two teamed up to bomb an unexpecting team three. Being atop a glacier in the sunshine was a great experience and our whole team had so much fun. We all agreed that photos don't quite do it the justice it deserves.
This is a huge glacier and being on top of it makes you feel quite small. We spent some time perched on our highest point of the day. all of us reflecting on what a great day we all had. The hike down was just as beautiful as the hike up. You could look up the glacier and see the other teams that looked no larger then just ants. In total we hiked about 10 km with most of it with spikes on. What a day. At the moment I am in Wanaka, deeper in the mountains. Tomorrow I return my little car Su when I get to Queenstown. Yep I am off to Queenstown for 3 days maybe longer... What could happen in Queenstown?
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Nancy
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That is amazing! Enjoy every minute of it! What an adventure....