Hey everyone

Today we hiked up the Franz Josef Glacier!

We were up early, having being woken up a few times throughout the night by the thunder outside, anxious to find out whether the hike would go ahead. We didn't hear any news so had breakfast as it rained outside. We walked over to the Glacier Guide centre at 9, and it seemed that though there was a 'severe weather warning' the walk would be going ahead. We checked in and began to get all our gear: socks, gloves, hats, raincoats, boots and crampons.

When everyone was ready we boarded a bus for the short journey to the start of the hike, not far from the glacier. We split into 5 groups depending on how quickly we wanted to walk, and went for group three. The eleven of us set off through a little wood, splashing through overflowing streams. When we emerged out the other side, we were in a valley and about a kilometre along from the base of the glacier.

We walked along the valley, in light rain, and were amazed by the rainbows in the waterfalls ahead of us, which appeared to come down and touch the valley floor. As we reached the base of the glacier it was time to put our crampons on. These are spikes that attach to the base of the boot to provide lots of extra grip when walking on snow and ice. We then began the long ascent up the glacier, up steps carved into the ice and with ropes to hold onto to keep us stable. It took some practice for Christina to get used to the crampons, as she didn't trust them at first. She would stamp her feet into the ground to make sure the spikes were definitely in the ice, but using more energy than she needed to in the process. Alex was busy talking to our guide Ryan about the Duke of Edinburgh expeditions... We'll come back to this.

Once we were properly on the glacier we started exploring the pathways in the ice. Though it was almost always raining, we didn't seem to care as we made our way down narrow paths between huge walls of ice (so narrow we had to go sidewards), and up and down steps in the ice so steep we had to often hold onto a safety rope and go very slowly. The steps had to be carved out of the ice by our guide, who was often busy cutting and carving away with his axe. Though our wooly gloves were soon soaked through, they still did a good job of keeping our hands relatively warm.

Our icey adventure also involved jumping over big crevises in the ice, often several metres deep, as well as avoiding deceptively deep pools of water that just looked like puddles. Christina chatted to a girl in our group and was shocked to find out that she had a fractured foot, but she refused a cast as it would have disrupted her travel plans. This 'dedication to the cause' is apparently not uncommon with backpackers.

We often stopped during our icey exploration to take in the natural wonders hidden in the glacier. We found a tunnel formed naturally in the ice that, being the adventurous travellers we are, we crawled through on our hands and knees. We found a small cave in the ice, again formed naturally, and took some great photos (whilst trying not to get the camera wet).

Alex chatted to the guide, Ryan, about his trip up Ben Nevis. Ryan asked what the trip was called and when Alex replied "the Extreme Weekend" Ryan stopped in his tracks. It turned out that we had both been to the same school! Not only that but Ryan had been in the year below Alex at Stowupland High. Crazy! It turns out that only Stowupland High School call the trip the Extreme Weekend. Lots and lots of chatting about teachers and friends we had in common commenced. Ryan told us that two teachers from Stowupland High (Miss Richmond & Mr Taylor) were planning on climbing Mount Everest this year, though he didn't know if they'd done it yet.

Anyway, back to the glacier hike! After exploring the crazy terrain of the glacier, we eventually started to make our descent back down the glacier to the valley floor. A few hours later we were back on the bus to the town, anxiously awaiting a cup of tea. When we arrived back at the centre and took off all the gear we had borrowed, Christina discovered some very big and nasty blisters on the back of her ankles that had been causing her pain all day - over the next few days the blisters would go on to cause lots more pain. We were, however, very pleased to receive a couple of cups of hot chocolate to enjoy whilst we handed back all our gear, and after leaving a nice message in the Guestbook we raced back to the hostel to have hot showers.

That evening, aside from having a feast and several cups of tea, we desperately tried to dry all our wet clothes (it seemed that our room had gotten really damp whilst we were out) and packed our bags as we were heading off to Wanaka tomorrow morning. Xxx