Franz Josef and the Amazing Glacier!!

Tuesday 19th January 2010, Lake Mahinapua to Franz Josef

There were a lot of hung over people on the bus at 9:30am this morning. We were 2 of them but I must say we didn't feel half as bad as we did the previous day!!!

So after saying goodbye to grumpy Les it was on the bus and on the road! Most people would have been quite happy just sleeping but no Josh our driver had other ideas as there were a few stops to do on the way.

First stop of the day was in Pukekura where we visited the Bushman's centre. This I must say was a pretty pointless stop but funny all the same! It was a small museum with a very grumpy guy running it called Pete. He actually was 10 times grumpier than Les! At least Les was cute and funny Pete was just grumpy! The main attraction was a short film about deer hunting! And about the crazy ways they used to catch the deer. At one point they used to hang over them in a helicopter and then at just the right moment they used to jump on the deer from above! No ropes just free fall! Crazy. They used to do this in order to catch not kill when it was realized that there was a good trade in deer meat. New Zealand now has lots of deer farms all over the country. Interesting but not something we would have felt we'd missed out on if we hadn't have gone! After the museum and seeing some possum's we had some breakfast before re boarding the bus. This place also had many an amusing sign about the place. See Photos.

From here we then drove for another hour before stopping at Okarito Lagoon for a brief look and some great views of The Southern Alps. The Southern Alps started near Nelson and we basically stayed with them all the way down the West coast.

We arrived in Franz Josef early afternoon and after checking in we chilled at the hostel with some of the others. Some of the girls were meant to go skydiving and when we arrived the weather was fab but in this area it changes very quickly and this is what it did. So it was cancelled as there was so much cloud over the glacier they wouldn't have been able to see it! Gutted! The weather is so unpredictable here and also it can be bright sunshine in the village and rain on the glacier all at the same time.

So our afternoon was spent sorting out all our future bus journeys, booking some accommodation for the next few places and just generally making sure we were organized. We then had some lunch (peanut butter on toast) with a coffee whilst talking to some of the others. From here a few of us decided to go in the spa which was part of the hostel, and this is where we spent the next few hours. Sweating, chilling and talking. Because we had decided to spend one day more than the others we weren't worried about rushing around seeing everything. Plus the main event in Franz Josef is the glacier and we were all doing that tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was in the bar as they had a good offer on for food so quite a few of us opted for that. Next was the prize draw for the previous night's fancy dress. We all felt it was a bit of a cop out. The idea was that the bar maid at Hotel Mahinapua was meant to pick a winner but she had said that everyone made a great effort but she couldn't decide on one out right winner so consequently all the names went in a hat. The winner won a Canyon Swing, and thankfully our names were not pulled out! Caroline would have liked it, I personally would not have liked it!!!

After this we all had a few drinks and participated in the Pub game night of Rocks, Scissor, Paper. Caroline, Myself, Liz and Kerry all entered along with some of the lads. You weren't allowed to use your own name so we were Dave (me), Roger (Caroline), George (Liz) and Fredrick (Kerry), very amusing! The girls got knocked out first round, Caroline and I made it to round 2 but were then both knocked out. Although there was a bit of contention regarding Caroline as she actually won but because the ref said she hesitated she was knocked out!! She was not happy!!! The overall winner was a guy from our group, Adam, and he won a bungee! Not bad for a free competition!

Afterwards we all stayed and had a few drinks. Caroline was good and opted out at about 10:30pm, I stayed out with Kerry until about midnight. A good social night!

Wednesday 20th January 2010, Franz Josef Glacier walk

We had to check in at the glacier office at 9:15am so after making sure we had enough warm clothes and a spot of breakfast we walked our way around with the rest of the group. On the way there it was looking pretty overcast so it was fingers crossed that the weather held out! This was not to be, in the time it took to check in and get our equipment the heavens opened and they pretty much stayed this way for the rest of the day! So we ended up having a very wet and cold day but utterly amazing!!!!

Originally we were going to do the half day hike but because we'd been told that on the half day you just get to the good stuff and then you turn back we opted for the full day, and we weren't disappointed! It was 8 hours in total, 6 of those on the ice. Fantastic!!

We were given waterproof jackets and trousers (they weren't very waterproof so by the end of the day we were all soaked!), boots, socks, crampons (the things that go on the boots so you can walk on ice), a wooly hat and wooly gloves. The gloves and hat stayed away until the end of the day so as to give us some form of clothing to warm us up! I had 2 layers on plus my hoodie in my bag. Caroline had three layers on plus her hoodie as well. We decided to leave the hoodies in our bags so we would have at least one dry piece of clothing left, or so we thought!!!

From the office it was a 10 minute bus ride to the start of the glacier. First of all we had a 20 minute walk through the forest to get us to the floor of the glacier. This is where confusing thoughts started. We had been told that it was a good 1 hour walk from the car park to the actual glacier base but on coming out of the forest and getting our first glimpse of the glacier it looked extremely close and we were thinking "well how is that going to take another 45 minutes?" Well people the glacier gives an illusion of closeness due to the reflection of the ice. In fact it was actually 3km away! It was also at this point as well that we had to choose which group to go in. They ask you to consider your fitness and your confidence. Because we knew this was coming I had decided that I wanted to stay in the slow group at the back, I gave Caroline the choice of going in one of the faster groups if she wanted too but she chose to stay with me and also all the other girls were going in this group as well. So 8 of us plus 1 Korean girl and a guide called Jase made up group number 4! It must have made his day, 9 girls all to himself and on his birthday as well!

From here there isn't a lot I can write. We were basically walking, climbing, sliding but not falling on the glacier for about 6 hours. We had several very narrow crevasses to slide through, a tunnel to pose in and 2 caves to climb down and pull ourselves back up. The caves were at the furthest point we could go. Cave 1 we walked down some ice steps and then used a rope and steps to get ourselves back up. Cave 2 we had to use a rope to get down and we had to kind of abseil down but forwards. Once at the bottom we slid along on our bellies under a small ice bridge before then climbing and puling our way back up the other side! Hard work and a bit scary but fun!

It was amazingly easy to walk on ice! With the crampons on it just felt like you were walking on grass. As long as we remembered every time we took a step to stamp not slide all was good! Must tell you about the colour. We'd heard people say it was blue and we'd seen postcards but until your actually on the glacier it doesn't really strike you. But yes the glacier in a lot of places was blue and beautiful.

Because of the rain and everyone being so cold we didn't really stop for lunch we just had snack breaks along the way. As far as being cold, it really only hit you when we were stationary. There is a bit of waiting around. Because we were the last group most of the steps had been made for us so it didn't take Jase long on those to create the perfect steps for us all but the main problem with waiting was because our group kept catching up with group number 3 so we had to keep waiting for them! But hey ho its all regardless really because once at the bottom we all forgot about the cold and the wetness and just marveled at the day!

Must discuss toilets! For the first time ever in our lives we went 8 hours without having to go! In fact the whole group did! We all knew that if we had to take a call of nature it was to be the au natural way and this was not really a problem, its been done many times before! But I along with pretty much all the others made the decision that I was no way pulling my trousers down to go when it was chucking it down and far to cold to be going that way! So we held it!

We returned to Franz Josef around 5pm and after returning all our equipment (a little bit hard at one point as my jacket was stuck, but Caroline's strength solved that one!) we went in search of Hot Chocolate! We were also at this point gutted to discover that our supposive dry hoodies were in fact wet!! The waterproof cover on my bag sucks! But thankfully they were not wet all over just in sections.

Everyone else went to the hot pools at this point but because we were staying one more day we chose to do that the following day so it was at this point we treated ourselves to 2 very nice hot chocolates whilst sat in front of a fire outside one of the cafes. Lovely!

After here we went back to the hostel and then went in the spa. A lovely hot spa with rain on our heads, bliss!! After showering, it was dinner yet again in the bar and meeting up with everyone else on the bus. Tonight was a big night with everyone involved, it was also a messy night and didn't end until about 3am! Great fun and our chance to also say goodbye to our bus as we were staying another night and they were all leaving the next day. We knew some of them we would see in Queenstown but not all of them, sad but happy!!

Thursday 21st January 2010, Franz Josef

Today was big style hangover day!! And do not a lot day!

We had to check out of our hostel and change hostel this morning so that was done at 10:30am much to our disgust! But on the upside at least we didn't have to get on the bus!! Once at our new hostel (which was very nice) we took good use of their communal living room, where we stayed until we could check in at 2pm.

After checking in we tested the beds for a bit and then I left Caroline testing whilst I went to collect our food bags that we had left at the other place. I then had peanut butter on toast before returning to test the beds and read my book. I pre warned you we did very little today!!

Eventually at about 5pm we went to the Hot Pools. Very hot but very nice. There were 3 pools starting at 36 degrees and rising to 40 degrees. The 40 degrees pool was just too hot!

After the hot pools we went to the supermarket and then returned to the hostel to cook dinner. Tuna Pasta bake and Broccoli. Very good! We also caught up on some washing and then packed.

We had planned to have a quiet one tonight but because Caroline had a friend to say hello to, we decided to go and have ONE drink! Well we got to the pub just before 10pm and we didn't leave till 3am! We are terrible and one never means one! So on eventually going to bed at about 3am it was 3 hours sleep for us before leaving the next day at 7am! Arrghhhhhhhhh!

Note to anyone reading this, if you are in or coming to New Zealand, make sure you go to Franz Josef! Its amazing and such a lovely place!!!