Franz Josef glacier

Just got back from a full day guided tour of the Franz Josef glacier. Thank god the full day tour wasn't full. We got roughly 6 hours on the ice, whereas a half day excursion would have 1.5 - 2 hours on the ice, which is not nearly enough time. And the weather was perfect once again. The glacier area and the Franz Josef township gets 270 days of rain every year, and today and the day before yesterday were two of the only 90 days of non-rain they get... and not only wasn't it raining, it was sunny and warm. There is something special about being in a temperate rainforest, doing a glacier climb, wearing shorts.

Climbing up a steep wall of ice

Travelled by bus 10 minutes to the car park and then walked the 40 minutes to the terminal face of the glacier, put on our crampons, and got going up the ice. This glacier was a lot different than the one we walked on in Alaska (Exit glacier), in that this one needed more up and down navigating through the ice falls and the crevasses.

In front of the glacier heading back to the carpark

What was especially cool about this hike was that you could actually walk inside some of the crevassses. It was really tight, and really cool walking inbetween two massive walls of blue ice.

Inside a crevasse

Another thing that the guides found for us on the way down was what is called a Moulin, which is a sort of ice tunnel. On our way down we got to literally crawl our way through two of these tunnels, among some ice cold streams of glacier water, before coming out he other side. Loads of fun.. gnarly even :)

One of the holes we crawled through. The other one was just after this one

Tomorrow we have quite a trip ahead of us. First we will head up the coast to Pukaki to watch the Pancake Rocks, and some other attractions in the area, before heading back down the coast again, and entering the highway for our last stop before Christchurch and the trip home; Arthurs Pass.

PS: We are sure that those reading this blog appreciate that this post was a bit shorter than the rest ;)

We never posted a pic from the paraglide, so here it is. Supah!

PSS: For some reason, all trips have a song that is played everywhere. The trip to Australia, for instance, had "Love Generation"... a horrible song. This trip, however, we always seem to hear that awful, awful Kid Rock rip off - version of Sweet Home Alabama. It is just so bad, and it does not get any better with more listens...