Glacier

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We arrived in Franz Josef quite late that afternoon at the little 'Glow Worms' Hostel that we were staying at for a few nights - it was great there and we got upgraded to the best room ever and well, for us, it was luxury. Chris persuaded me to go for a late night walk into the forest to look at the glow worms, but when we arrived at the spot, I was far too scared, as once the lights from the car were turned off, all around us was darker than dark and even though we had those silly wind up torches the hostel had lent us before we headed off, . . . . .nope, just not enough light for me to be on our own, in the middle of nowhere, pitch black, funny noises. . . .just to see some worms.

So, the main reason we were staying in Franz Josef for a couple of nights was to see and do a guided walk up & down the Franz Josef glacier. We chose in the end to do the FULL DAY walk, little did i know, ohhhh, little did i know. The guide was cutting out steps in the ice as we were climbing the glacier as we went along, when and where they were needed, with his massive, very scary looking pic axe. Very hard work climbing up for about 4 hours - thinking in my head - "dont worry caroline, coming down will be much easier" NUH UH! Coming down was probably harder, by that time, we all had a pic axe each and some massive spikey boots to reduce the amount of slipping and falling over on the ice.

The glacier was amazing, once climbing up it, views from higher up were amazing. We were walking through ice caves of blue ice, crevices of blue ice - a bit of a squeeze, but amazing to be walking through, not being able to touch the top of either side, but looking up, and the ice either side of you was bluer than the beautiful sky. If you looked close at the ice when walking through the crevice, you could see beautiful patterns, lines, WORMS in the ice! and they were alive! Weird! We had lunch at the highest point that we were climbing that day - had time to cool down, believe it or not - you'd have thought we'd have been freezing, but the hard core climbing ice activities had warmed us all up a fair bit. We took lots of photos, hopefully they'll give a bit of an idea of the experience.

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Comments

[MumF]

Glacier
Thrilled finally to see the photographs of the glacier. They look wonderful, what an experience it looks like a different world. You have certainly stretched your adventures to the limit and have had some amazing experiences. By now you will be preparing for your trip to Fiji where no doubt more exciting adventures lie ahead. Have a wonderful time, not long till we see you again. Keep safe. Love to you both. Mum Fxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Tricia]

Glaciers
How beautiful the glacier looks. That also looks quite scary. I cannot believe how much you have done in your time travelling. tons of love - Tricia