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Published: January 25th 2012
Franz Josef Glacier...
....that's where we're headed!Well,we did the half day glacier trek. Not as physically testing as Tongariro - and well worth the effort.
Mind you,making it to the bus was a challenge - apparently there was some sort of incident yesterday (there was a rumour that someone had had a heart attack)! We had to fill out these forms and those forms,take off our own boots and socks and replace them with theirs (our coats managed to pass inspection),get issued with crampons. It was worse than the IBM employee induction process!!!! Having arrived for the 08.30 bus,it eventually left about 09.15!
We walked through some bush to get to the river bed at the bottom of the glacier which was 2 kilometres away. The weather was cloudy but dry and fairly warm. En route the sun did come through a couple of times. The trek to the bottom of the glacier was straightforward; then it got a bit tricky........and then even more tricky (by this time we had our crampons on). Some of the ice formations were amazing and a new "hole" in the ice had developed over the last few days - as we were looking at it,there was this noise like
Franz Josef Glacier...
......a break in the clouds. thunder that came from it as more ice collapsed. It was slow going and we had to virtually crawl through a short ice tunnel.
We got back to the start about 13.30 - so we had a fair chunk of time up there.
Fortunately,part of the deal was free entry to the glacier hot pools - which was a very good way to relax after our exertions. One of the attendants there was an Indian whose dad had spent 8 years in Glasgow,was a Rangers supporter and spoke with a Glasgow accent!
Slowing coming to end of NZ adventure........off to Graymouth before our last 2 days in Christchurch.
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Frank & Grace
non-member comment
Hi! Very impressive. You should find bagging Monroes no problem. Happy BURN's DAY! No snow here. Frank & Grace.