Day 5: Glacier Hiking - Franz Josef

No rain this morning! We headed down to the Franz Josef Glacier Hiking Shop (again maybe a 1 min walk) where we geared up with waterproof pants, jackets, boots, socks, and crampons (essentially strap-on spikes used later for hiking the glacier). We boarded the shuttle and headed out to begin our adventure.

(This is a picture from our drive)

We began the hike through a forest,

ending up in this rock plane leading up the glacier

then it was finally time to head up the glacier! (you can see it closer behind us now)

The first part of actual glacier time was through pretty dirty and rocky ice

Then we finally made it onto the uncovered glacier! AMAZING! We put on our crampons (below, look closely - our feet blend in with the rocks), and headed onto the ice! During the entire hike, our guide either carved our own path or modified an already laid out path (While these tours go essentially every day, the glacier moves 8 meters each day, so paths tend to be pretty destroyed each morning.

Our hike lead us up and down stairs
through tunnels,

holding onto ropes,
****
and through this little crevice (emphasis on "little" - this hike would be a good incentive to diet - these crevices are tight) the view looking up it was actually so TINY!
We finally made it to the top (well as far as the half day hike took you at least!)
had the chance to "hack our own path"
and drink fresh glacier water!
On the way down, while our guide was rescuing a camera that fell into a crevice, we found time to pose for another picture :)
We had way more ice time than I expected. A couple minutes before reaching the top, our guide asked what time it was, then said, "We're supposed to be off the ice in 5 minutes, well that's just not gonna happen" and we continued on! We've had amazing guides both days in Franz Josef!

Tomorrow we're off to Wanaka!