Day 17 - Franz Josef - One Big Ice Cube

Day 17 dawned bright and early, and the weather couldn't have been more different to the previous day. It was a fresh, crisp morning and the sun was getting ready to shine. I met up with Noirin and Anette and we walked down to the Glacier guides hut to get kitted up for our glacier hike. Yet again I was a bit worried about their boot sizes, but I was amazed when they told me they had up to size 25! (And i'm only a measly size 14!). We were provided with a waterproof jacket and trousers, hat and gloves, boots, crampons and socks. We even got a bum-bag to keep the crampons in. After we were all ready to ge we climbed aboard the bus and were shipped out to the glacier. We got off at the start of the public trail to the glacier, and we were told that we had a bit of a walk before we even saw the glacier. We walked for a while before we were split into groups. I was in group 4 with Annette and Noirin and a bunch of people, most of whom were with the Magic bus. This meant we were in the medium fitness group. We walked further until we reached the barrier which said 'no admittance past this point without a guide'. Our guide held the barrier down whist we hopped over it. We were now right at the terminal face of the glacier, an it was time to put our crampons on. We were also told that once we started to move closer, we weren't to stop until we reached the way up onto the glacier, a roughly hewn set of ice-stairs, with a guide rope. These were quite a challenge, especially as the steps were near vertical and we were only just getting used to the crampons. We then regrouped and our guide, Tay, told us where we were going. It looked so far off from where we were. we were also told that we would follow a pre-cut path for the first part up until lunch, and then it was down to the guide to cut it for us. We took a long time to get to the ice-axe bin, and there everyone was given a pick-axe. The first thing she told us as soon as we got them was, 'these are walking sticks and supports, this isn't touching the void'. Suddenly my ideas of scrambling up cliffs using the axe for support were dashed,. It was still a really great experience, though, as there we were on a giant slab of ice full of cracks, fissures and caves. There was one crevasse which we had to fit through, and I was worried because I thought i'd get stuck, and I nearly did. It's really amazing that the formations of ice actually looked so much like waves. Sadly I decided not to take a camera because I didn't want to risk getting water in it, but Noirin and Annette did, so there are pictures. After the hike and out return to the bus, I felt so stiff, but I didn't worry because we agreed to go to the hot pools up the road. It was heaven. We were in there until it closed, and then we headed back to our relevant hostels for bed before the next days travels towards Wanaka.