Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Now the morning came and we had to meet at 8am, I was up like a shot, had my picnic packed and all ready to tackle the Glacier and the 8 hour hike! Stepped outside and it was chucking it down with rain! Brilliant, so I was going to get wet... By the time I made it to the check in I was soaked through. We were given Hats, boots, spikes, gloves, jackets and trousers to wear which were cool, since I couldn’t get any wetter, and then driven to the car park by the glacier. The walk up to the edge was brilliant, I was buzzing! We walked through the rivers flowing from this gigantic Ice structure, and to the edge, where we were taught how to use our spikes! Then it was off, to tackle the glacier, I was in a group with Zoe, Kim and some of the other guys from the bus. I get on with Zoe and Kim really well, one Canadian and the other Welsh, really good laugh. The guide we had had to carve the stairways in the ice as we walked, since they kept melting away! One staircase was a brilliant picture, carved into the side of an Abyss. Brilliant picture! It’s like the stairway into the beyond. Walking on Ice and climbing these crevices was so cool, the ice down here was white and dripping obviously. But the sheer mass of it was immense. As we worked our way up, we found a cave which was passable, literally walking through the ice! So cool. The chasms and crevices in the ice were huge sometimes dropping over 30 ft downwards. As we reached higher parts of the glacier, the ice turned blue, a beautiful glowing blue colour. The highlight for we was a hole that we found which seemed impossible to pass through, it was no bigger than 2ft high at one point. We passed through it with our climbing axes in hand. It was so cool, seriously one of the best experiences of my life. It did rain a lot while we were on the Glacier, but that kind of, for me anyhow gave character to the hike, made it feel more realistic. Dave Betts battling the elements to reach the summit! The Ice was so beautiful and the structures it had naturally made through advancing reminded me of castles and forts. But mainly superman’s home on earth, the one made out of ice. It was such a beautiful, brilliant experience. And Zoe made it a lot of fun too, with her and Kim pretending to axe one another and slipping down hill on numerous occasions! I couldn’t image anything in the rest of New Zealand beating this.
- comments