I woke up at 5:45 this morning to catch my bust to Greymouth. The drive was about 4 hours and it was absolutely beautiful. We drove through Arthur's Pass which is a mount range, the sun was rising and the mountain tops were covered in snow. Once I arrived in Greymouth I had about two hours until my tour company's bus picked me up so I bought a hot chocolate while it waited because it was so cold. At 1:00 the bus pulled up and a very energetic woman who goes by Possum jumped out. The bus was filled with 15 other backpackers (mostly from Germany) I packed my bag in the trailer and we started on our way to Frans Josef Glacier. On the way we stopped at a grocery store to get food to make for ourself at the hostel.

On Monday morning we woke up early to climb the glacier -- that's right we spent all morning hiking through the Franz Jeosef glacier and it was amazing! Around 9:00 we arrived at the main building where we had to sign the waiver and get all of our equipment. I was a little worried when the waver had a specific area asking if any of us had an ACL injury --haha I will let you figure out which box I checked! Then we met out tour guide, I have gotten so used to different accents that at first I didn't realize he had an American accent, I couldn't believe it when he told me he was from Cleveland Ohio - what are the chances?!? We suited up with the snow pants, snow coats, boots, gloves and hats that the company gave us. Then we went on the helicopter that took us up to the glacier (that was the first time I have ever been in a helicopter). We spent around 4 hours exploring and climbing through tunnels made by the snow. On the way down the sun came out which caused different streams to form running down the glacier, so we stopped to have a drink of the fresh water. Then the helicopter took us back down to the town where we are staying. The views from the helicopter were just so beautiful. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had!