Fox Glacier Ice climbing

Today we woke up knowing that we were going to scale a glacier, very exciting. We were joined by two Germans and a Guide (Simon) for the day. Once fully kitted up with what looked like killing weapons (Nick looked very pleased about this) we headed for the ice. It was quite a trek up onto the Glacier, luckily our valley scrambling earlier in the week had prepared us well. But once on the Glacier everywhere you looked was just awesome. Simon taught us the basics and then we headed further onto the Glacier for some tougher climbs. The tools are so good, you literally climb up the wall like a fly sticking your crampons into the ice and then stabbing the axe in and hauling yourself up a bit more. It was a lovely day and sometimes you had to pinch yourself to see if you were really there. Also, totally exhausting, being on the Glacier for about 9 hours. Having been such a tiring day we spent the evening at the Franz Josef Glacier having a bit of RnR in the hot pools (bliss).