Woke this morning all prepared to tramp up the Franz Josef Glacier (which I have renamed San Joseph). We had to move out of our mediocre hotel room to a very retro hotel room in the middle of nowhere where the bathroom door doesn't close and there is no cistern on the toilet. After the move, we went into town and had breakfast (nice bowl of pumpkin, sweet potato and courgette soup) and popped into the tiny church for a prayer. It was lovely inside, with the bellbirds singing sweetly outside.
At 12.30 the brave adventurers headed to the appointed place to meet the guide for climbing the glacier. Before we paid, they talked us through a few things we would encounter - fording rivers, climbing steep inclines, falling rocks, and all this BEFORE we got on the ice! I freaked and backed out, and the poor Monster agreed to stay behind too. I was really angry with myself, but after I calmed down (and read some Lincoln Preston - no sign of Vile Viola yet, thank God) we drove out to the glacier car park and walked out towards the ice.
I am so glad we decided to go on our own private guided tour rather than paying someone else to take us. We could go at our own pace, and the Monster was excellent at helping me ford the fast flowing streams, climb the steep inclines and descent the rocky falls. The ice face of the glacier was well worth the long hike (took us about 2 hours there and back). I got to touch the ice - felt a bit like putting your hand in the freezer - and there was a cold breeze off the ice which was in our faces going there and at our backs leaving it.
As you can see, the Monster got some really cool pictures of the ice. I would have posted more pics, but they take SOOOOOOOOO long to up load, this is your visual quota for the day.
Just to prove that we actually reached the ice, here is a picture of the two of us together. If you think it is slightly fuzzy, don't blame some poor camera illiterate back packer we wrangled to take it of us, it was a rock who took it, and for a rock I think it is a pretty good picture. Thank you rock. tomorrow we go to Fox glacier, home of everybody's favourite sweet, the Fox's glacier mint!
At 12.30 the brave adventurers headed to the appointed place to meet the guide for climbing the glacier. Before we paid, they talked us through a few things we would encounter - fording rivers, climbing steep inclines, falling rocks, and all this BEFORE we got on the ice! I freaked and backed out, and the poor Monster agreed to stay behind too. I was really angry with myself, but after I calmed down (and read some Lincoln Preston - no sign of Vile Viola yet, thank God) we drove out to the glacier car park and walked out towards the ice.
I am so glad we decided to go on our own private guided tour rather than paying someone else to take us. We could go at our own pace, and the Monster was excellent at helping me ford the fast flowing streams, climb the steep inclines and descent the rocky falls. The ice face of the glacier was well worth the long hike (took us about 2 hours there and back). I got to touch the ice - felt a bit like putting your hand in the freezer - and there was a cold breeze off the ice which was in our faces going there and at our backs leaving it. As you can see, the Monster got some really cool pictures of the ice. I would have posted more pics, but they take SOOOOOOOOO long to up load, this is your visual quota for the day.Just to prove that we actually reached the ice, here is a picture of the two of us together. If you think it is slightly fuzzy, don't blame some poor camera illiterate back packer we wrangled to take it of us, it was a rock who took it, and for a rock I think it is a pretty good picture. Thank you rock. tomorrow we go to Fox glacier, home of everybody's favourite sweet, the Fox's glacier mint!
5 comments:
That was really cool(!!!) I love the pictures and I am impressed at the skill of the rock photographer. I totally understand your trepidation as you know I am the same, except I always think I can do it before hand and then freak out at the last minute. Really glad you got to see the Glacier.
fantastic photos!! Well done to you both- cant wait to hear more.
The photos are great!
It looks cold...
Great photos. Why the long hike to the ice when you can just drive? SDL.
To SDL we drove as far as we could that then had to hike the remaining distance
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