heather climbing into the ice tunnel

our group lucked out and were allowed to slide through a tunnel cut
out if the ice by water. the guide had set a rope inside, and one by
one we slid (bumping and grinding reallly) through the tunnel!

looking back into the valley from behind ice waves

I was pretty surprised how far up onto the glacier our group wandered.
our guide was a little surprised as well.

ice "waves"

making our way through the ice waves

moving upwArd, we zigzagged through the ice fields that had an overall
formation that looked like giant waves.

glowing blue

our guide gave us a good talk about the blue appearance of the ice.
has to do with light rays being bent a distorted in the ice crystals,
and all that reflects back is the blue. she was super funny in
breaking off pieces of the ice, and making sure that we were aware
that the ice itself is not really blue, just appears that way in
context of the glacier. good thing too cuz I was secretly hatching a
plan on how I was going to bring a hunk of blue NZ ice home. j/k. ha.
I can only imagine the range of off the wall questions the guides have
to answer.

looking back...

the surface of the ice looked like a fairly level incline looking up,
but when you looked back you could see that it was a series of
fractured mounds. see the dude standing on the far side of the chasm?
again. puts the scale in perspective.

continuing up

we ultimately hike up to the dirt triangle area in the center of the
picture. a lot farther than it looks!

hiking through the blue ice

our journey up the glacier led us through a couple of tight spots! the
ice was also freshly "cleaned" in the rain over the previous two days,
so it was super bright and blue.

onto the ice

seeing the group next to the ice begins to put the size into
perspective, eh?!

looking back on the river valley from the top of the rock pile

top of the rock pile

reached the top of the rock pile, and had a few minutes to snap some
photos before getting on the ice. we had a few clouds hanging in the
middle of the valley over us for the day, but big blue sky lit up the
mountain tops and the glacier.

heather going up up and away!

kept heather in front of me. and I brought up the rear of our pack led
by our guide Sally.

...and up we go!

the glacier guides had been out since 7am recutting the ice stairs...
we split off into three groups of 10 people, got in line, and
started to climb. the crampons took a minute to get used to, but were
quite amazing how well they kept you hiking on the hard ice.
the ascent up this ice and rock hill was incredibly a lot steeper than
i anticipated!

our glacier lessons in action

George, one of our guides, really enthusiastically gave us a bunch of
info along the way! it wax really great to be in the first group out
in the morning. we didn't have anyone in front of us heading to the
glacier, and we saw some of the most spectacular blue skies of the day
unfolding over the mountains.

getting closer

we walked along the turbulent river coming out of the glacier. the
mouth of the cave was massive, and looked so sketchy! house sized
hunks of ice looking like they were ready to fall at any moment. the
guides said that the cave actually does collapse in varying degrees
every few years, stopping up the river, creating water dams inside the
glacier that explode, changing the landscape of the glacier itself.
the dirt covered ice to the right side wasn't there 5 years ago when
heather came to the glacier last. it was formed from a massive river
explosion a few years ago. so crazy to think about how rapidly the big
ice flow can change! the franz Josef glacier is generally in a
retreating mode (in different places of the glacier, it can be up to
10 meters a day)... but based on the snow pack at the top, and the
melt at the bottom, it varies quite significantly year to year. at the
turn of the century, it filled half the valley we hiked across, and in
the 70's it retreated half way up the valley you are looking at.
heather was quite amazed at how different it was in a mere 5 years.

waterfalls everywhere

the valley walls on both sides were littered with waterfalls. on the
hike out our guide gave us a good chat about the geology and climate
of the area that created the conditions for the franz Josef and fox
glaciers. I can't even pretend to reiterate the info... it was an
overwhelming day of info and experience!

very excited girl! :)

Sent from my iPhone

first stunning views!

we arrived at the glacier park, and began our hike to the base. fr the
place thus pic was taken, it was still a 40min hike to the base. the
sun was shining on the top of the mountains, and the frist views of
the glacier and valley were stunning! none of the pictures really do
any justice to the scale of the glacier. just massive!

off to the glacier - bright and early start

7:30am, light fluffy clouds and blue skies peeking through. brilliant
decision to put off the tour for a day! at the glacier office, we
collected our gear for the day (waterproof jacket / pants, boots,
crampons, hat / gloves), and jumped on the bus to the glacier.

rainy day

heather and I, along with our bunkmates, woke up bright and early to
prepare for our big glacier hike. it was still POURING rAin out, so I
awoke rethinking my gear, and preparing for a wet day. heather awoke
with no inclination to do the glacier hike in the rain. this was her
second time to the glacier, and she really wanted to be able to get
some good photos. we worked out the day before that we could shuffle
our plans a bit, and do it the following day if necessary... so we put
plan b in motion. a quick (and very wet!) walk over to the main
office, and we were rebooked for the first group out the next morning.
back to the hostel, we both jumped back in bed... and slept till noon.
guess we were due for a much needed day of rest!

heather read her tour books and came up with several rainy day
plans... but we only managed to walk around town a bit, and found a
couch by a fire at the bar, and were planted for the rest of the
afternoon. caught up on some postcards, and really enjoyed the time to
relax, and absorb.

by late afternoon, the sky cleared, and we had some sunshine for our
kiwi ice cream tower of delight! :)