Today we did our 3/4-day hike onto Franz Joseph glacier. After being suited and booted with hats, gloves, boots, ice talonz, over trousers and rain jacket, we headed off.

Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers are fairly unique in the world as they descend to below 300 meters above sea level into temperate rainforest. This is due to the steep valley sides which enable the ice to come down lower than would otherwise be possible. We had a fair walk once we got out of the bus to get to the terminal face (end) of the glacier. Once we got out of the forest and could see the glacier, it was still 2.7km away, but because of the steep valley sides leading up to the mountain, it looked a lot closer! Once we got there, we had to put on our 'ice talonz'- metal contraptions that go over your boots so you can grip on the ice. Then it was time to take to the ice! The first part of our ice journey involved climbing up ice steps. These had been carved out of the ice by the guiding company. Our guide had an ice axe with him to aid the on going maintenance of them. Some of the steps were fairly steep and across narrow ridges - ropes had been put in to act as banisters on the more dangerous parts. We saw fault lines in the ice - some of which were quite (scarily) deep! There were holes and cavities too where the melting ice had turned to water and found a path through the ice. Some of the deeper ice shone blue, this was caused by the ice having less oxygen in it and the ice reflecting a different colour.

We reached the last of staircases and were told that most of the half day tours stop about there - we were glad we'd got longer than that! The ice now had a flatter appearance, as we'd finished climbing the terminal face. There were now much softer gradients to climb up and down. We were given sticks to walk with which had a small ice axe on one end. We walked around for a while at this level (the glacier did go further up past this plateau). The ice looked amazing, especially where it had formed to look like frozen waves. Our guide found a newly opened crevice for us all to squeeze through - we had to take our backpacks off to get through the tight space. After some more exploring we were heading down off the plateau towards the many steps when we saw a pair of Kea, which are mountain parrots. Magnificent to see parrots on glaciers with temperate rain forests in the background!
After tea, we (once again!) retired to the pub. We'd both become quite fond of the Monteiths beer that was being served there.