New Zealand Part 4

I've decided to post some journal entries from my travels in New Zealand for the benefit of those who won't get see the pictures or talk with me about it. Mind you, this is not a narrative meant to explain everything about New Zealand and my time there, only a reproduction of what I thought was worth putting into my own journal. Enjoy, post any questions as comments and I'll respond as soon as I can.

November 1st, Nelson - Franz Joseph

We were picked up at   7:30am by our Atomic Shuttle right at our front door. The Atomic buses are smaller and not as comfortable as Intercity, but they are significantly cheaper and have door-to-door service.

Stopped for a lunch break in Punakaiki, the sight of the "Pancake rocks." Nice stopover point, especially for geologists, but not really worth more than the half an hour we spent there.

Rolled into Franz Joseph at 4:30 and checked into our hostel - The Chateu Franz. Nothing french about it besides the name, but a very nice hostel with free soup, hot tub, movies, and meal/happy hour deals at the locals watering holes. We booked ourselves onto the half day glacier hike for tomorrow and will probably do some other small local hikes afterwords. Franz Jospech is a tiny town all centered around the hostels and the glacier activities. Perhaps Fox is a bigger town, but I continue to hear that FJ is the superior glacier.

November 2nd, Franz Joseph Glacier

Hiked on the glacier today - what a fantastic trip! It is so much bigger than you realize, it's 2.5km just to walk to it after the public walking path ends! It is one of only 3 temperate glaciers in the entire world, the other two being fox glacier in NZ and one in Patagonia. FJ is only 200 meters above sea level.

The guiding outfit provided all the gear we could ever need, which meant I was dressed overly warm. The crampons and boots were very sturdy too. Getting on the is was great and very easy, the crew cuts fresh steps into the glacier every day - something that is needed with all the movement of the glacier and the rainfall (9 meters annually). They are a bit worried about global warming having a bad affect on the glacier, but so far it's nothing too serious.

We can only see a small part of the glacier from the valley floor, the "panhandle," portion. To get to the actual pan part we would need a really long hike or a helicopter flight - which is offered in town but is too spendy for my tastes.

The ice in the glacier really is blue! This is because glacier ice is significantly denser than normal ice, so the light refracts and we only catch the blue spectrum (occasionally green and, in the antarctic, sometimes purple).

Going through the ice cave was great, and it was more physical an activity than I'd guessed. Walking with emphasis in every step to make sure the cleats all stick into the ice is a decent workout. Still, a full day up would have been a good adventure at my fitness level.

Anna and I decided to use some advice we got in the hostel about the hike. They typically split each hike into groups of ten people, and we were recommended to go in the last group - the slow group. Most people don't like the idea of going in the slow group, but the slow group also gets the most time on the ice and doesn't have to keep moving to make room for the other groups; like being the last pair on the golf course, you can take your time with each spot and really enjoy it. This was good advice, made for plenty of time to take pictures and asking questions of our guide.