Franz Joseph Glacier!

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Wednesday 26th April 2006

We walked down to the glacier office for 10:30am which is when we had to check in. We were kitted out with all our gear such as ice-boats with metal spikes on them, raincoats, socks, hats & gloves! We then boarded the coach which took us to the valley at the base of the glacier. It didn't look that far at all or very big but it was actually an hours walk to the ice...walking through rivers and the rainforest too.
Once at the base of the ice we put our spikes on our shoes and we were ready to get climbing! The group was split into 2 groups 13 and our guide was Lucas. He got started straight away chopping steps for us as he went. At first it was pretty scary cause we were sliding all over the place but as we got further into the ice we got abit more confident. We had to climb up parts using ropes to help us as the drop on the other side meant sudden death :o/ We went over bridges covering massive gaps in the ice and also between the ice which was pretty cool.
As we started making our way back down it absolutley poured down so we ended up get soaking wet which made us even colder! By the time we got back it was 7 and we were so tired and freezing cold so we snuggled up in the van with the heater on full blast to warm up!

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