We arrived in FJ around noon which allowed people to go on a half day hike on the glacier and move on the following morning if they were in a rush which plenty of people chose to do. There were a few of us hanging on for the full day experience and we got to see the glacier in the afternoon from a viewpoint near its head. The next day we would be walking on ice for many hours so it was quite an impressive sight to see this frozen river of ice flowing down the valley. After that i just chilled out and did a few bits and pieces that id put off for a few days including getting all the gear together that i would need to bring with me tomorrow. Later on a few of us in the hostel took advantage of happy hour in a nearby bar to have a few cheap drinks and then it was an early night to prepare myself for my adventures the next day.
I arrived at the Glacier Guides centre at 8am excited by the prospect of the coming day. There were 40 people on the hike with me which sounds a lot but it worked out ok as i'll explain later. We got our briefing and were provided with waterproof jacket and trousers, boots, woolly socks and crampons. These are metal spikes which you strap onto the sole of your boots to give you grip on the ice. This all took a while as there were so many of us so it was after 9am by the time we were on the bus which shuttled us to the viewpoint id been at the previous day. This is where the trek began. It started with a quick hike through some woodland to the valley floor close to the glacier itself. Here we were split into two groups, the pace setters and the picture takers. I jumped in the first group as i was there for the challenge and experience more so than to take a million photos which, upon looking around, i suspected plenty of people were. Photos are great but if you don't enjoy these places when you are there then what's the point? Our group took off at a good, steady pace and soon reached the front of the glacier where 2 more guides were waiting. We now had 4 guides which put each group at 10 to one guide which is pretty manageable. Next we climbed a hill of scree until we reached the ice itself. At this stage we put on the crampons and were ready to walk on ice!
The trick to walking on ice in crampons is to keep walking forwards in a straight line and stamping your feet slightly at each step to dig the spikes in. Keeping your feet apart also ensures you don't faceplant or rip your pants. Other than that its pretty straightforward (get it?). Just pay attention and you'll be fine. But then when you are walking on one of the most amazing natural occurrences and gazing around you at the natural beauty of the glacier and its valley then you can be forgiven for being a little distracted. I guess the first thing i noticed about the glacier is the surface. When i think of ice i think of smooth, shiny and slippery but a glacier is different because it is constantly melting and freezing so the surface is rarely flat, hardly ever smooth and often quite rough. There are dips, cracks, crevasses, towering walls, tunnels and hills all over the surface of it. Because the glacier is basically constantly melting and reforming the surface changes a lot. So it forms randomly and is tricky to negotiate. Our guide began putting his pickaxe to good use clearing a path for us mostly by cutting steps or clearing new ice from existing steps. This makes progress pretty slow as we have to wait for him to do this at times. We spent a lot of time climbing up but at times would walk through little 'valleys' with walls of ice rising on each side. The going wasn't too bad so far, we were moving steadily and doing plenty of climbing up and down with small patches of walking on flat terrain. We could fill our water bottles from the various little streams we occasionally came across too. So this point it was a pleasantly challenging experience. But it was about to get better.
The first bit of real excitement was the first tunnel. We crouched and half crawled, half shuffled our way through a tiny tunnel carved into the ice, a prime photo stop! Soon after this we stopped for lunch and the other groups caught up. Then the guides disappeared somewhere together for what seemed like an age. When they came back they were soaked through and grinning from ear to ear. We were told to don our waterproof stuff and follow them. Around the corner we we saw what had them so wet and excited. We were going to go through a blue ice crevasse which had water streaming down both sides. It was a tight squeeze, you could only go through sideways but it was an amazing sight. It was deep enough that we could see the true (blue) colour of ice and with the aid of a rope we could get in and out and see it up close and personal. So close in fact that we got pretty wet, waterproof gear or not! Taking pictures was kind of out of the question as there was a lot of water falling on us so sadly no amazing pictures. That was easily the highlight of the day and we followed it with a couple more tunnels and crevasses. We were all really enjoying the day but i was starting to get a little frustrated with two of the group. We had 2 chinese girls in our group who every 5 minutes or so would stop and take several pictures of each other. This could be halfway up or down a slope, inside a tunnel or crevasse or just while walking along. Its really annoying when you are trying to get up a hill of ice and the person in front of you stops. I got stuck behind them for an hour and was getting pretty fed up of them before i got a chance to pass them. I think its an Asian thing to take millions of photos of yourself while abroad while doing the "peace" salute.
Besides this i really enjoyed the day and its definitely a highlight of my overall trip. That said, when we began to descend the glacier i was happy enough to do so. It was after 3 by this time and we had been walking pretty consistently since before 10am. It took no time at all to work our way down and we were on the rocks taking the crampons off by 4. A brisk walk back through the bush and we were back on the bus. We got dropped off at the office where we shed all the gear we had been given for the day and that was it. I jumped on the net to share my day's adventure with everyone and then it was back to the hostel in time for the free soup. After that i made my way to the glacial hot pools to relax my weary muscles. 3 hot pools at 36, 38 and 40 degrees celsius soothed my stiff legs and i chatted away to a few other people who were doing the same. Back at the hostel i watched a bit of a movie and had an early night and that was me done.
I had one last day in FJ afterwards which, needless to say, was a lazy one. Besides the glacier there is precious else of interest in this quiet little town so i relaxed and caught up on some reading and a bit of blogging. After such a hectic day yesterday it was nice to sit in the sunshine and chill out. I was still on holiday after all! Next stop is Lake Wanaka for a bit more chilling out before finishing it all off in the craziness known as Queenstown.
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