One of the things that I simply had to do whilst in NZ was to do the Franz Josef glacier walk. As you all know, I am a big geography geek, and one of the things I remember learning at school was how Franz Josef had retreated rapidly in the past 100 years or so. Obviously I had to step foot on this “frozen ice cube” – a sadly un-scientific description of the glacier from our guide.
Now the weather was absolutely shite when we woke up – it had been pissing it down all night so the car park was basically flooded, and it continued to do so all bloody day (and still does). Having pre-payed for the guided walk on the glacier, we thought we had to go despite the rain, so off we went. After being kitted with waterproofs, boots, and crampons (along with 40 or so other people), we got on the bus and 10 minutes later began the walk through rainforest to the glacier. I most certainly didn’t expect there to be rainforest practically right up the glacier front; the Franz Josef terminus is only at 160masl or something, making it a very rare glacier, which allows the rainforest to grow near the glacier as it is very warm. However, the ice can also co-exist due to the massive accumulation zone of the glacier (the area where the snow falls, feeding the glacier) which is the size of Christchurch city, and the fairly small valley which this feeds, where the glacier flows. The rain continued to pour, and before even reaching the glacier, we were soaked. The actual walk was really amazing; the ice had some fantastic blue colours to it and it was just awesome being able to walk on a glacier, and see all the shapes and colours (previously I have only walked on a snow covered glacier in Svalbard). It was a real shame that it was raining so hard as it meant I took about 3 photos on the whole trip, but it didn’t ruin the overall experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone!
We headed back, and realised how wet we had actually gotten. Despite a waterproof cover on my backpack, a puddle had accumulated soaking everything within it (there was even a massive collection of water within the waterproof cover – it’s no wonder I thought the bag had gotten heavier); the same for my camera bag which I was very annoyed about, but luckily the camera body was dry. Everything has subsequently been hung up in the bathroom to dry – and I mean everything. My money has been hung up on the shower door, socks and gloves too – a chair has been brought in to hang up my clothes and bags – the bathroom is literally crammed full of stuff to dry (there is a heater in the bathroom by the way, hence using it as a dry room).Fingers crossed everything is dry before we leave tomorrow morning.
p.s. you will all be happy to know that I didn’t get wedged in a crevasse!
pps – the rain continues to pour
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