Greymouth-Franz Josef

Once again, I stayed one night in greymouth and the next morning we set off for Franz Josef. We made a stop half an hour away to get any last minute things before heading to franz josef where we wouldn’t have any shops. I managed to fall asleep in that half an hour trip even though I assured the others that I wouldn’t! A quick stop to do some gold panning and find our fortunes before heading to Franz Josef for midday in time to do the half day glacier hike. We quickly checked into the hostel and grabbed something to eat before running down to the meeting point. There we were given out boots and rain jackets, spikes for the ice-they do have a special name but I cant exactly remember it! – hats and gloves and we were on our way. Before we even got to the glacier, we had to go for a 2km walk through the valley and up ladders and rocks and around and down to the bottom of the glacier. I was exhausted before we even started up the glacier and was really wishing I had gotten more sleep the night before. From there we put our spikes on and started the hike up the glacier being extremely careful as not to fall. We roamed around the ice for a while exploring different nooks and crannies before heading back down for the eagerly awaited trip back… I was glad that I had chosen to do a half-day hike because I would hate to think what I would be like at the end of a full day!! We got back to the hostel at about half 5 where Andre was on the tv! It really reminded me of my childhood and I sat and enjoyed every moment of it. It was off to bed early that night exhausted but extremely happy.