When we woke the car was completely fogged/iced over so it took 10 minutes to defrost the van. I did not sleep that much that night because I kept waking up, readjusting and trying to keep as much covered as possible.
I woke up around 7:30AM, moved the van to the Glacier Guides parking lot, added more layers of clothing and went to check in. Colin and I were doing the full day Nimble Fox hike, Jenn the half day, and Abby was just going to hang out for the day in town.
Colin and I had to get our gear, including crampons (ice skates with traction grips on the bottom), backpack, hiking boots, hat and mittens, raincoat, and packed lunches. We met our guides for the day, mine was Andrew (mid 20-yr old, fun, joked around) and headed out to the buses. We drive about 10 minutes to get to the car park where we began the hike. The initial walk took about 45 minutes, walking through sand and rocks to begin then a beautiful rain forest. Lots of lush, green trees, bushes, moss---it was a fairly long and up-hill hike. The sun was luckily out today and I think I may have over-dressed for this part. I had 3 shirts, a sweatshirt, and raincoat on with 2 pairs of bottoms, 3 pairs of socks and boots. So I was a little warm---sweating actually. The hike just kept getting more and more steep, so I had to take off 2 layers.
The rain forest was very damp but bright green, not what I was expecting by a glacier. We made it to this one ladder part which had a chain leading to the top. We were told to hold on because the step over was pure cliff. Looking out when I got to the top, I could see the Glacier---what a majestic scene-unbelievable.
We walked to the Glacier after this. Before entering, we had to get our crampons on, applied the layers I took off back on, and started to climb/walk. The crampons were a little odd at first---felt like walking on stilts, but they gripped very nicely on the ice surface.
We had a beautiful hike--I did get a bit chilly while walking---and was being extra careful not to slip. I felt every time I moved I would fall, but the crampons really help. The glacier was not as white as I imagined, although looked kind of dirty with all the debris which were embedded from rock falls and from the glacier moving around what rock had been there. We came upon 2 waterfalls and boy is that water delicious. Crisp and cold, the best water I have every tasted. Refreshing!!
We walked about 4-5 hours on the Glacier itself. We even had out lunch just off the glacier on some rocks. I packed us a pb & j,an apple,and teddy grahams. After lunch we went back to climbing until we couldn't hike safely anymore. The cliffs were too steep. We turned back around and had to headed back the way we came. It took us a quarter of the time we took getting up going downhill and were back to the bus in no time. Getting back to the shop, reunited with Abby and Jenn. Misha, Rory, and Misha went ice climbing Fraz Joseph--not far from Fox so we met them there and then went off to Queenstown together. Alyssa and I both drove than vans. I drove the whole way there---most small winds and a few of the most extreme curves. There were a lot of animals and roadkill on the streets. I unfortunately hit a possum right after Alyssa who was in front of me hit one too.
We had to make an emergency gas stop because we were under an eighth of a tank, and then continued on-ward. Right before getting to Queenstown---we hit the most windy road possible---basically half circles and u-turns all the time. Surprising, Queentstown was still awake when we arrived at midnight.Misha got us all an hotel room which was huge---two master bedrooms and beautiful and comfy couch which I slept on for the night. We all brought our stuff inside and we sat down to watch Dilemma. It was a funny! Then it was shower time---felts so good to be clean again. We all went to bed around 2:45-3AM.
The days are going way too fast here--I am so glad we get to see both islands, lots of driving, but thats ok. The northern island---more beach lik ane AUS-like
The southern island has more adventurous!
The NZ accent funds more educational, crisp than AUS and I think I like their better.
What an action packed day---not just some rest will do, on a couch that it!
My feet were killing me by the end of the evening.
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