Day 16: Franz Josef Glacier

Today was the day at last: The full day walk to the Franz Josef Glacier.

Let me start by saying that although I got a bit disappointed with this excursion, it is totally worth it and if you come to NZ I would recommend this one as a must do.

I think that in part my dissappointment comes from my extra high expectations. This activity is sold as a "Full day walk in the glacier" when in reality you only walk for an hour or two and you end up, most of the time, waiting for the guide to clear the path or to wait for some other group.

You could say this is not an adventure type of activity. It is a very professionally run enterprise where they go to great lenght to ensure that regardless of your phisical fitness (or lack of) you will still enjoy it.

Before you get the bus to take you to the glacier, they (the company providing the guided "walk") give you all the neccessary equipment (hiking boots, socks, coat, clamp-ons, gloves, woolen hat, and waterproof trousers (this is all included in the price of the guided tour).

This way they make sure nobody goes ill prepared since the wheather in the glacier is very unpredictable.

Then they send guides at 5-6 in the morning to clear the path and make staircases with hand-holders and everything ensuring this way that the climb is as nice and easy as possible.

Check it out!

After climbing 2-3 metres (using one of the many nicely sculptured staircases) the group stops for a few minutes while the guide goes to examine the next staircase and in some cases he/she adds and extra step to the beautifully ice-sculptured staircase to make it even easier to  climb.

I was expecting a walk in the glacier a bit like what the Tongariro walk was but with a guide (so you don't die trying).Perhaps my initial disappointment came from my expectaion to do some exercise after all those days in the bus but once you look over that initial disappointment I must admit that this is without any doubt a NZ MUST DO kind of activity.

My rucksack was packed with food to survive 3 days in the wilderness... (not that I was counting on that though)

I pretty much took the same amount of food that I took to the Tongariro walk and back then I ended up eating everything and more.

Here I carried all the food all the way up and then all the way down even the chocolate! and the drinks...

On the other hand with all the tens of mini-breaks we had plenty of opportunities to take as many cool pictures as we wanted

So if you are looking for some action and adventure, look somewhere else but if on the other hand you are looking for spectacular views and walking through high walls of blue ice, perhaps crawling through some ice cave, independently of your physical condition this excursion will not disappoint you.

It is not cheap but I think this is a must do in NZ.

The weather prediction on the previous day was as bad as it can get...lots of rain.  Overnight it rained so much that I waked up with the noise and I was secretely hoping they would cancel it (who wants to spend 7 hours under heavy rain?).

For everyone's suprise when we got to the glacier it was nice and sunny.

As the day progressed the wheater changed and got cooler and cooler (you can probably appreciate that from the pictures, as the day progresses I get more and more layers on) :-) But it never got very cold and apart from the many kilos of food I also brought enough clothes to endure a nuclear winter. You know...Prepare for the worst hope for the best.

There were almost as many waterfalls as there are rocks.

The beginning of the glacier is all rocks.

Once we got to the ice we put the clamp-ons on

These were great to can stick yourself to the ice with like a spider

Once we started walking on the ice the fun began

It's hard to appreciate how large the glacier is sometimes

As they explained it to us the snow gets accumulated at the top of the glacier and over 80 years or so it gets pushed down by more recent snow (year after year)and that's how the ice becomes blue (under a lot of pressure) then as the soil is wet and slippery this ice moves down the valley.

The ice is full of mini streams, cracks and holes

Best of the rest

And what it looked like rock down at the entrance of the glacier it was actually ice covered with rocks

Looking back at the end of the "walk"

As part of the guided tour you are given free access to the local spa...

And as I was coming out of the spa (hard work that one) a rainbow!

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