Franz Josef Glacier (South Island Day 2)

Although our RV was freezing, we managed to come out from under our covers at 8:45 to get ready for our glacier walk/hike. So we got to the main building where we paid and got hooked up with some boots, socks, rain jacket, and crampons (the metal spikes that let you walk on ice). We were then herded into a bus like cattle and driven to the national park where we would then hike to the base of the glacier.
Our guide for the day was Carl (guy with the big pick ax) who would lead us up the icy wall. I like Carl mostly because he didn't like standing around too much, ans also I suppose because he wasn't going to let and giant ice boulder things fall on our heads. He would also cut "steps" with the ax to give us foot placements on difficult terrain.
The crampons were pretty awesome. The metal spike were about an inch and a half long (seen in one of these pictures). Essentially, if I accidentally stepped on my other foot, it would look like swiss cheese. The did make me feel cool when I was walking up super steep ice like it was nothing.

The hike up the glacier about 6 km and had an awesome views. The Franz Josef is one of only three glaciers in the world that descends down into a rain forest. One of the others is about 20km down the road, and the other is in South America. So one might think we'd be all bundle up, but shorts and a jacket was enough to keep us warm. Which also explains why we could almost always hear rushing water from the melting ice.




The hike lasted around 7 hours. We got back into town, filled up on gas and left right as the sun was setting. I drove another 2 hours, about halfway to Queenstown (our next stop) and pulled into a camper park where we could plug in. I reckon we were all pretty exhausted from the glacier.