Franz Josef Glacier

I don't know much about glaciers, apart from the stuff I learnt in geography at school, so I was really excited about seeing the Franz Josef glacier. We arrived in Franz Josef township quite late so all we had time to do was book our half day glacier hike for the next morning. Nearly everyone on our bus was doing either the full day, 3/4 day or half day glacial hike, so it was early to bed.

After a hearty brekkie of bacon and eggs, it was off to the glacier. I admit I was terrified, I was even thinking of ways to get out of doing it, because I am more than a little accident prone and was worried about going arse over tit on the ice and needing to be airlifted off the glacier. I was also wearing 4 layers because I didn't want to get cold, but at the guiding place, they gave us big, heavy boots, a raincoat, a woolly hat and gloves so I had plenty of padding.

When we got to the terminal face (fancy name for the front of the glacier), our guide split us into 2 groups; the confident group and the nervous group. I was in the nervous group with the lovely Jules and Alan went in the confident group, which meant he went up the glacier first and went around it faster, whereas us nervous people went around a bit slower and had deeper, sturdier steps cut out for us.
It was also nice because we had 2 hours apart, considering we have spent the last 12 weeks glued to each other.

I was shaking as I climbed the ice steps of the glacier, but became a little more confident with each step because my ice talons attached to my big boots stopped me slipping. I found it easier to climb up the ice steps than to climb down them, but Jules told me to walk behind her and hold onto her backpack. She was so lovely and reassuring that I bought her chocolate to say thank you when we got back into town after the hike.

Being on the glacier was fantastic. It was a white/grey and blue colour. There were blue ice caves further up the glacier but we didn't have time to see them on the half day hike. But we'll definitely do one of the longer hikes next time, so we'll get to see them then. It was chilly but not absolutely freezing because the sun was shining and keeping us reasonabley warm. Walking on ice is hard to describe, but the simplest way is to walk like a bloke (legs apart, so you don't trip over your feet) and stamp your feet with every step.

The half day hike was long enough for me this time, after 2hrs on the ice I was ready to come back down. Alan felt it wasn't enough for him and he should have done the 3/4 day hike.