My First Experience on a Glacier!

First thing in the morning on November 15th we left our hostel in Greymouth and began to make our way about 2 hours south down to the Franz Josef Glacier.  We arrived just in time to toss on hour gear and begin our 8 hour trek up the glacier.  This was a full out glacier trek and was actually quite physically demanding at times.  There was about 33 of us and they split us up into 3 groups of 11, each with a guide.  I of course chose the advanced group because I wanted to be a hero.  Even though the glacier looked so close it took us about an hour or so to make our way to the base of us.  

Once there we strapped on our crampons and because to make our way up the glaciers.  Our guide had to continuously chop steps out with his ice pick for us and the groups following which tended to slow us down a little but he said it was necessary because the glacier is constantly moving at a rate of about a meter a day so if they don't keep the path in decent condition it may not exist the next morning.  It was an amazing sight up there and the terrain was constantly changing.  At one point we would be walking across relatively smooth patches of ice with no problems at all, then we would be walking on a pointed ridge with deadly crevasses on either side of use (single file was key), then we would be heading up straight vertical steps with a rope, and other time we would be squeezing through caves barely big enough for me to fit through with my small day pack.  I got some great pictures and I will post them as soon as I can but who knows when that will be.  

Once we got off the glacier at about 5 at night were all exhausted and just found a hostel to stay in for the night.  Once we were all cleaned up we headed down to the local pub for three dollar pints and watched the All Blacks NZ rugby team play the English team.  It looked a lot more intense then the rugby I used to play in high school haha.  Then it was off to sleep in the campervan because we were getting up to head to Queenstown again in the morning.