Franz Josef - Glacier country

Today we did a glacier hike in Franz Josef, now I’ve done this before but it was something that I was excited about doing again as it's an amazing experience. Also as it's a glacier it's changing every day, this particular glacier moves at about 7mtrs a day and as your clambering all over it, it creaks and moans and pieces of ice just fall away. Since it's changing all the time the guides have to dig new steps and tracks every single day.


We did a 3/4 day hike on it and got all geared up with boots, ice crampons and water proof jackets. You then get the bus to the car park and hike for about 45mins through the bush and then the river valley to get to the bottom of the glacier and it was just amazing to see it again. There was lots of waterfalls coming down the side of the cliffs to the valley floor, they were so beautiful.

We put our crampons on and started to climb the ice steps up the side of it almost immediately we saw lots of blue ice. There is definitely a WOW factor attached to doing something like this and we both loved it. During our journey we squeezed through crevices and caves, there was one particular crevice that was very narrow to have to get through and Al actually had a hard time getting through (I slid through effortlessly) but he had me on the other end taking pictures of him struggling before heading back in again to actually pull him out the other side it was quite amusing but very fun. There was two Irish girls Joanne and Lorraine with us on trip so there was always someone to chat to along the way.

There is not much else to say about the glacier, it is just too amazing for words However we took loads of pictures (click here) which tell the tale for itself. Enjoy!