We left early that morning & drove to Pukekura to the Bushman's Centre- a bizarre centre telling the stories of how people made a living on the coast previously including possom trapping & helicopter deer recovery (which meant leaping out of a helicopter onto a deer!. There was a option of trying a possom pie but I wisely decided against it. We then made our way to Franz Josef where we booked our Glacier Hikes for the following day. The rest of that afternoon was spent relaxing in the hostels Spa Pool ready for our long walk the following day.

The following day we arrived at the Glacier Adventure Centre at 9am ready for our full day hike. We put on all our warm clothes, boots & picked up our crampons and boarded the bus to the glacier site. We were dropped off at the Franz Josef Glacier and walked 45mins to the terminal face. We then put on our crampons & began our walk up the glacier. Our hike began by walking up man made, ice carved steps on the face of the glacier. We spent the rest of the day walking up hill, through cravases alongside frozen water and climbing up through tight spaces in the ice. The ice itself became more amazing the higher you got- changing from dirty, to white, to blue. The colours and some of the ice formations were stunning. The trip itself was pretty challenging for me but I was very proud of what I had achieved by the end.