I went walking on a glacier

Yesterday was a very active day. Nearly everyone on the kiwi bus was doing a full day trek on the Franz Joseph glacier, myself included. We went to get kitted up about 9am. They gave us big black walking boots, waterproof trousers, raincoats, hats and mittens and crampons (metal spikes to grip on the ice).

The glacier was a short drive and walk away. Being on the ice was a very strange experience. Every part of my body was expecting me to slip when I put my feet down but the crampons give you some serious grip. It still took an hour or so of walking and climbing to get used to them though. We had a full day walking and clambering around the glacier. At one point we went a little way down an ice cave. It was like the walls were glass. The ice in most places was blue. Apparently it's something to do with light relecting off the ice. It looks incredible. The ice was dirtier than I thought though. There was quite a lot of dirt that had fallen off the mountains around and been carried down the glacier as it moves. I think the film Ice Age has warped my opinion of what glaciers look like! Even though some of the glacier actually looked like that. One of the slightly unexpected activities of the day was sliding and clambering through crevasses. The easiest way to get through these really tiny paces (sometimes less than half a foot wide!) was to slide down them and use your elbows and forearms to wedge yourself along. Sometimes to had to climb up big steps and it was very easy to fall over or get stuck. It sounds horrible but was actually very fun. The guides were all very overly excited as we got to go along a new pathway that they had just finished cutting in the ice. Because it was new and I was in the first group this meant there was a lot of waiting around whilst they made sure that the steps that had been cut were safe and they had to put in ropes by some walls so we could climb up. I actually had to climb up sheer walls of ice at a few points. Sometimes I had to have one foot on either wall and basically walk up!

Most of the time it wasn't as cold as I expected. When we were moving it was fine. But when we were stuck in the crevasses waiting for the guide to clear the path and there was water pouring down the walls on to my head it was very, very cold. I warmed up as soon as we started moving though. Thankfully it didn't rain whilst we were on the glacier but it started as we were walking back, it would have been so miserable if it had rained when we were cold.

When we got back we all went to some Hot Pools and relaxed in pools of about 36, 38 and 40 degrees. It was so so nice. Afterwards a load of us went out for a curry. This was also very, very nice. Not many people managed to stay up to go to the bar. I went for a quick chat and to watch one of the guys from the bus win a rafting trip by playing a variation of rock, paper, scissors called Ninja, cowboy, bear. The players had to do whole actions for each thing and it was quite funny.

This morning we were up really early, 6.40am! We all stumbled to the bus in the rain and mostly fell asleep. Because the weather was so bad today we didn't really stop to see anything. We arrived into Lake Wanaka at about 2.30. It's a nice little town which seems busier than most of the other places we have been. It has loads of shops full of skate, ski and snowboarding clothes and equipment as this is a ski resort in the winter ski season. It seems quite nice, I wish I had more time to spend here and do some walking and explore round the lake.

Tomorrow we leave for Queenstown. I'm still debating whether I should do a canyon swing.
xx