Franz Josef Glacier
After the wonderful knife-making day in Barrytown, we headed to the wee town of Franz Josef for access to the Franz Josef glacier. This is a big fat block of ice which moves quite a bit for a glacier, at least a meter each year. And it's set between lovely mountains and hills and lots of crumbling rocks for the glacier to play with. Brilliant!
We opted for the full day of ice hiking, and it was awesome. Chris will have photos up soon. I was worried about falling off the thing, but the guides were brilliant and managed to keep me (and everyone else) safe. There were about 30 of us, and they split us into three groups depending on how confident we were about it all. I stuck with the least confident group just in case, and loyal Chris came with me rather than rushing ahead with the nutters in the first group. That was a good thing because he had our lunches in his backpack!
We climbed up pretty high on the glacier but by no means to the very top. The guides were good enough to chop steps into steep areas and even put up ropes for us to cling to in the really slippery bits. It was all great fun. We hiked up and down, through the most gorgeous crevasses, sometimes having to fight to squeeze ourselves through really narrow gaps between towering walls of ice. (Good thing the ice was melting in places; those of us with big hips appreciated the greased surfaces!!!) I'd also been worried about the impact of our hiking on the glacier, but the whole thing is in a constant process of melting in places and growing in other places and shifting around so it stays huge. We were all given ice picks for balance but also to help chip away at ice when required (Chris really got into this!), and I got the distinct impression that the glacier didn't even feel us there!
One of the highlights of the day was seeing a couple keas on the glacier. The kea is a cheeky monkey of a bird. He's a sort of parrot who lives in the mountains on the southern island of NZ. To see a parrot sidling along ridges of a glacier was the coolest thing. We saw one on two occasions. The first time he got quite close to us, angling for food. Our guide threw some ice in the kea's direction (not trying to hit the bird or I'd have smacked the guide!), making the bird fly away so we could see the brilliant colour under his wings. The next time we saw a kea was during our descent to the ground. We were going down some steps with a hand rope, and the kea was checking out the rope. He took a few pecks at it but luckily didn't dismantle it! These guys are known to cause major damage to cars; the way our guide put it, "Keas have a fetish for rubber." Ha! They know how to unzip backpacks and tents. They just like to get into things and explore and -- I'm convinced -- annoy people as much as possible. Genius!
So we've now walked on a glacier! We hadn't even seen one before that. What a great day!!!
We opted for the full day of ice hiking, and it was awesome. Chris will have photos up soon. I was worried about falling off the thing, but the guides were brilliant and managed to keep me (and everyone else) safe. There were about 30 of us, and they split us into three groups depending on how confident we were about it all. I stuck with the least confident group just in case, and loyal Chris came with me rather than rushing ahead with the nutters in the first group. That was a good thing because he had our lunches in his backpack!
We climbed up pretty high on the glacier but by no means to the very top. The guides were good enough to chop steps into steep areas and even put up ropes for us to cling to in the really slippery bits. It was all great fun. We hiked up and down, through the most gorgeous crevasses, sometimes having to fight to squeeze ourselves through really narrow gaps between towering walls of ice. (Good thing the ice was melting in places; those of us with big hips appreciated the greased surfaces!!!) I'd also been worried about the impact of our hiking on the glacier, but the whole thing is in a constant process of melting in places and growing in other places and shifting around so it stays huge. We were all given ice picks for balance but also to help chip away at ice when required (Chris really got into this!), and I got the distinct impression that the glacier didn't even feel us there!
One of the highlights of the day was seeing a couple keas on the glacier. The kea is a cheeky monkey of a bird. He's a sort of parrot who lives in the mountains on the southern island of NZ. To see a parrot sidling along ridges of a glacier was the coolest thing. We saw one on two occasions. The first time he got quite close to us, angling for food. Our guide threw some ice in the kea's direction (not trying to hit the bird or I'd have smacked the guide!), making the bird fly away so we could see the brilliant colour under his wings. The next time we saw a kea was during our descent to the ground. We were going down some steps with a hand rope, and the kea was checking out the rope. He took a few pecks at it but luckily didn't dismantle it! These guys are known to cause major damage to cars; the way our guide put it, "Keas have a fetish for rubber." Ha! They know how to unzip backpacks and tents. They just like to get into things and explore and -- I'm convinced -- annoy people as much as possible. Genius!
So we've now walked on a glacier! We hadn't even seen one before that. What a great day!!!
posted by Trace at
5:46 pm
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