Glacial Goodness

After Barrytown we said goodbye to a few of the crew and picked up a couple more in Greymouth. We stopped through the town of Hokitika which is the source for most of New Zealand's greenstone (jade). We got to see how it is fashioned into the intricate patterns- it looks like a very involved process!

We pulled into Franz Joseph and tumbled off the bus to sign up for the following days adventures- glacier hikes! Glaciers are responsible for carving out the landscape of southwest New Zealand, and Franz Joseph and Fox are the most famous in NZ because of their size, speed (by glacial standards) and accessibility. They also descend into temperate rainforest, the terminal face being only about 12 km from the Tasman Sea.
Most of us opted for the full day guided tour of the glacier to maximize our time on the blue ice- the terminal face picks up all sorts of boulders and dirt and isn't that pretty to look at.

Friday was our hiking day and it was really dreary- cold and wet and grey. We arrived at the shop at 8am to get kitted out with "waterproof" pants and jacket, hat and gloves, and most importantly boots and crampons, the spiky bits you strap over your boots so you can walk on solid ice. It was pretty legit!

There was a 10 min bus ride and about a 2km walk before we even got close to the ice. We were split into groups of about 10- Tif and I opted for the fast medium group and Scooter and Ann Marie from the tour were also in our group. Our guides were Nick and Rob, who carried big ice axes and had to help carve out steps and screw in hand lines along the way. Because the ice is constantly moving- up to 1.5m at the face, sometimes as much as 5m in the middle every day!- guides are constantly cutting new paths and finding different routes.

Walking on the ice was pretty weird at first. You had to "step aggressively" to get the crampons to sink in. It was a pretty constant hike for the 6 hour day, and the rain barely let off, but the views of the valley from the glacier were amazing and the ice itself was incredible. It looks blue because all the pressure of the ice on top forces air out and it absorbs all the other colors and only reflects the blue.

As the ice shifts it also forms crevaces and caves, tunnels and

 holes. Our guides were keen to get us crawling through these and taught us the shuffle step. We slid

 and shimmied our way through the first crevace- and all of us got a bit

 wedged in there. The ice walls were well over our heads and it was so narrow your feet had to face forward but you had to turn your

 body sideways and squeeze through. They say people with

 claustrophobia have issues with the hikes, and this made me understand why! After (barely!) making it through the first crevice we moved on t

o a tunnel and were crawling on hands and knees through a tiny passage and climbing a verticle tunnel to get out. The w

hole thing was pretty mindblowing, but spectacular. 

There were some serious stairs and ridges to navigate, a 

hesp more crevacies, and a lot more ice! We reached the high point for some more 

brilliant views. On the hike back down we saw some keas, mountain parrots that are very mischevious and will pull windshie

ld wipers off cars or open backpacks if left unattended. Apparently if they're desperate

 they'll also land on sheeps backs and peck until they can eat their insides, but that's just gross. 

After what felt like forever we made it back down off the ice, through the valley and the woods and onto the bus. I had thought the whole thing was amazing and Tif and I 

were pretty excited about it all. Everyone else, however, found it to be one of the most miserable experiences. All that high tech clothing really paid off- so thanks REI for helping me part with all that money!

After an exhausting day we had a big night at the local that included "horse races" and a lot of group bonding.