The road to Franz Josef was pretty long and very windy with lots of twists and turns around every corner. Add that to the torrential rain and howling wind it didn't make for the most pleasant of journey's and we were both relieved when we finally arrived. Our reason for visiting Franz Josef was to take a guided hike onto the famous Franz Josef Glacier. We headed straight to the information site to find out what the weather was to be like for the next few days and to see about booking on one of the tours. Fortunately the weather was to improve the next day and so we booked one of the final few spaces on the 8.45am trip. After paying a deposit we left with our booking cards and with the rain still coming down in buckets there was nothing better to do than head to the campsite for copious cups of tea, dinner and an early night hoping that we wouldn't have to go glacier hiking in the torrential rain. The next morning and we were both delighted to be woken early by the sun beaming through the blinds of the camper. We got dressed using every available layer of clothing we had, packed a bag with water, sandwiches and biscuits and checked out of the campsite headed for the glacier centre. Once checked in you are first given a pair of woolen socks and then a pair of hiking boots. When putting on the boots I didn't give much thought to previous day or how wet it had been however as soon as I stood up the soaking wet inside of the boot instantly soaked right through my socks. Looking around to the rest of the party it was clear from the unhappy faces that they were all experiencing the same soggy sensation and it was not pleasant. On overcoming the wet feet you are next given a rather attractive red bumbag which contains your crampons (for me the most exciting part of the outfit)! The next stop is the waterproof jackets, trousers, hats and gloves. Due to the improvement in the weather we were recommended just to take jackets. Once kitted up it was onto the bus with our guides Bruce to take the 10 minute trip to the glacier. The rain from the previous day was to haunt us yet again when we took our seats on the bus only to find that fabric was totally saturated from the wet clothes of the previous tour. Being the spritely twenty somethings that we are we managed to jump up before we looked like we had soiled ourselves and promptly sat on our jackets for the remainder of the journey. Once at the foot of the glacier we had about an hours walk across the floor of the valley before we would be ready to begin our ascent (and put on our crampons)! The walk was pretty flat however there were lots of rocks and boulders to climb over and a couple of small streams to walk through. The previous days rainfall had seen the river swell and cut off the path we were supposed to take so there was one slightly tricky detour which saw us scale the wall of the valley to get to a narrower part of the river. The views from the valley floor were amazing there must have been at least a dozen waterfalls coming from the walls of the valley and varying colourations of the rocks left over from the glaciers regression were unreal and so many could easily be taken and converted into works of art. The view was completed by the overbearing presence of the glacier itself which ran up the top of the valley and was an unbelievable 400m thick and from the valley were only viewing around 10% of the overall glacier mass. Once at the foot of the glacier we were given instructions for putting on and walking in our crampons before taking to the ice. Before starting the walk we were to split into three groups based on our fitness and confidence on the ice. I was the first one in the middle group as I wasn't completely hopeless but was by no means ready to skip my way up to the lookout with the pro's! Unfortunately about 70% of the tour had the same idea and so the guide had to split us up and being spritely twenty something's became a curse and we were promoted to the pro group! It took us about an hour to scale only a small portion of the glacier and on the way the views were unreal. The natural and dramatic formations of the ice were stunning the most striking feature being the shade of blue reflected off the glacier surface by the sun. Whilst some of the glacier was dirty and covered in rock there were portions where it was perfectly blue and unspoiled. We were able to scale some pretty steep portions with our crampons gripping perfectly and at one point we climbed down through a naturally formed ice tunnel. We soon realised on our ascent that being in the first group was to work to our advantage in that we were the first ones on the way up and therefore were able to get photos without lots of tourists in the foreground. Whilst the pace was a little quicker it was nothing we couldn't handle and being the first to the top we had time to spare and were taken a little further up the glacier than the rest of the tour to allow us to get even better views. Once at the end point we stopped to eat our lunch with one of the best sights you can get and its not every day you get to say "I had lunch on a glacier today"! After a few more snaps it was unfortunately time to head back down the glacier however I have to say I am glad we were not talked into the full day hike as the boots and crampons were starting to hurt my ankles and the soggy socks were becoming a chore. Once at the bottom of the glacier we removed our crampons and put them back in our stylish bumbags before making the final leg of the journey across the river and along the valley floor. It was at this point that Bruce our friendly guide informed us that the previous day they had to call in the rescue helicopter as two of the guides and two tourists were swept into the river as it was so swollen. I was glad he had kept that piece of trivia until we were safely across the river. Once back at the bus it was off with about 3 of our layers and back on the bus to the base. We had both loved the hike it was an awesome experience whilst at times it had been a tough climb and definitely not for the faint hearted the views along the way had made for some really great photos and it was worth the wet feet and weary legs. Once changed back into our dry shoes and socks we had a walk around the small township of Franz Josef before having a second lunch, as climbing is hungry work! As we had done the early morning glacier hike we decided instead of staying another night in Franz Josef we would start the long journey to Wanaka having an overnight stop in the tiny town of Haast.