Advertisement
Published: December 1st 2005
Edit Blog Post
27.11.05
Today we drove south to Franz Josef (glacier). On the way we stopped at lake Ianthe where we relaxed in the sun for a short while. We arrived at Franz Josef, had a look around the small, touristy, busy town. (most of the towns we go to are small, like one street) We decided not to book a trip on the glacier for the next day as we were tired and deserved a rest day! We drove to the carpark nearest the glacier and walked to the lookout point, Sentinal rock. From here you could see the glaciers (Franz Josef) terminal face and part of the glacier. From here we were not too impressed with it. It was not what we expected or imagined. We met a girl from Chelmsford!
We got booked into a camp site, with a free spa which we used before having tea and watching a movie.
28.11.05
Even though we planned a rest day we still got up and set off walking heading for the Tatare track and tunnels armed with our torches. This track was all up hill and took us about half hour to reach the old goldmine tunnel. We had read
in the lonely planet that there was going to be cold water running through it, but we never expected it to be that cold!!! It was only deep enough to cover our feet, but we went bare footed anyway and your feet were so cold it was painful!! We only went in about 100m but we turned around as the tunnel just kept on going and going.
We then popped into town to book our day on the glacier for tomorrow. We found out that the tour today had been cancelled because of the movement of the glacier had made one of the bridges that crosses a crevas unsafe.
We had our lunch at the site and then drove a couple of km's up north to a big lake we had passed on our way down to do a bit of sun bathing. Andy tried to get into the water but failed as it was too cold. He managed to get waist deep, I didn't even bother!
That night after our showers we used our 2 for 1 vouchers in the bar, 2 beers and 2 wines before watching a bit of tv then bed for our busy day tomorrow.
29.11.05
The weather was a little cloudy, but nice. We got all our kit ready, packed lunch and drove round to the office of Franz Josef Glacier Guides. We booked in and got given boots, gortex jackets, socks and talons. Jumped on the bus and drove 15mins. to the carpark where we had a 10 minute walk through the forest to the valley floor. From here we had the same view as yesterday, and we thought it would take about 10mins. to walk to the face, but our guide (Tangi) told us it was a 45 minute walk!! Because the hills are so steep it makes judging distances and heights really difficult. It was strange.
On the way we learnt lots, such as it is the steepest glacier used comercially for tourists. It's shaped like a frying pan and all we could see was the handle. It gets 50m of snow on top a year plus 15m of rain that turns into snow as well. The glacier moves a meter a day as it is currently advancing. It was really interesting and we'll explain all this information when we get home.
We got to the terminal face, that was
massive! How wrong we were! You could here it rumbling as blocks of ice fell off., it sounded like thunder.
We put on our talons over our boots and waited for other groups to set off, it was very busy. Whilst waiting they had a 'turn around' one lady came back off the ice as she was too scared!
We set off onto the ice. As we were moving up the face, very steep, our guide was cutting the steps with his ice pick. They have ice cutters that come out before the trips to cut the steps in the ice, but only for the first part of the trip.They have to cut the steps everyday because of the glacier is always moving and melting.
At this point it was stupidly busy and we had to wait to pass groups along the way. We weren't too impressed, but it cleared up and we were able to move along freely. We went over a few bridges (ladder with a plank) over crevases and some wicked terrain. We picked up some ice picks for use on the more rugged terrain which were helpful for balancing, posing with and breaking off as much
ice as we could so we could hear it fall into the holes. You couldn't always hear it hit the bottom either.
In total we climbed 700m and we saw ice that was clear blue and white with some parts with rubble on that the glacier had picked up whilst moving forward through the valley. We went through ice tunnels, climbed up and down tight crevases. At one point you had to move through the gap with just your elbows on the walls to support your weight. Some of the climbs were quite tricky, especially if you have short legs.
Half way during the day we had our lunch on the ice and also made some yellow snow!!! During the day you could hear bits breaking off and the glacier moving. It was a little unnerving.
After about 5 hours on the ice our tired legs started the descent back down. When we got down our jelly legs still had the 45 minute walk to do back to the bus.
After our 15 minute bus ride we arrived back at the office to give back our gear and recieve our information brochure that was signed by our guide.
We booked
into our site for another night and had dinner straight away, we were starving and tired.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0659s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Auntie Marg
non-member comment
Jealous
Hi both, I'm very jealous it looks awsome, take care.