The Grand Adventures of Nano: Walking on (very thick) ice...

Standing in front of New Zealand's biggest icecube

First, I apologize for the long delay in posting. Internet is a bit squirrely "Down Under," so sometimes it takes me a while. All is well in New Zealand though, and things still seem to keep getting better. After leaving Punakaiki, we traveled about 2 more hours by bus, further south, to Franz Josef. The town is tiny, and exists for one reason: the Franz Josef Glacier. It is the only glacier of it's type, I believe, in the whole world. What makes Franz Josef special is the climate it exists in. Like all glaciers, Franz Josef is a huge mass of slowly (although in FJ's case, not-so-slowly...it's considered a "fast" glacier, by ice standards) moving ice between two mountains. Unlike most glaciers, Franz Josef is surrounded by...rainforest. Not tundra, not arctic, green, lush, thriving rainforest. It's pretty amazing to, within an hour, walk from the middle of a rainforest to a huge glacier. We spent two nights in Franz Josef. We got there rather late on our first night, so we just had dinner and rested. The next day, it was pouring down rain, and we were worried that we wouldn't get to go see the glacier because of the weather, thus defeating the purpose of coming to Franz Joseph at all, since the only reason to visit there is the glacier. However, the Glacier Guiding company was operating walking tours despite the less than ideal weather, so in the drizzle, we suited up and headed out.

I'm always game for anything that necessitates a roped boundary and a "DANGER" sign.

You can walk up to the bottom of the glacier (past some amazing rainforest and waterfalls, I might add) by yourself, but to actually get on the ice, you have to go with a guide. Luckily, we had Jimmy, a redheaded Kiwi about my age, to lead us through the treacherous icy obstacles. And by that I mean we followed him while he cut steps into the ice with a very large ice axe so we could walk along with relative ease.

Mom and I trying to stay out of the way of the step-cutting (Jimmy is right in front of us in red).

It took us about two hours to climb up the bottom part of the glacier. It was raining the entire time, so the ice was very slick, and it was pretty cold (surprise, surprise, we were hanging out on a giant icecube...). Luckily, we'd been given plenty of gear to help with that, including waterproof pants, a raincoat, hats, gloves and crampons (spiky shoes made for ice climbing, just like you see in the mountain climbing movies).

In the middle of Franz Josef glacier.

We hung out at the high point of our glacier walk for a while. There was even a waterfall coming down the mountain right next to where we were standing. it was gorgeous, even in the rain. I figured out later that this was where the "Lighting of the Beacons" scene (the scene where Gondor lights all the signal fires on the mountaintops to call Rohan) in Lord of the Rings was filmed. The company that took us on our walk did all the helicopter flying for the scene, and I bet some of their guides were involved as extras. Being a supernerd, I thought this was very, very cool. It took us another two hours to climb down the glacier, which included squeezing through some very tight crevices and holding on to guide ropes to slide down very steep parts. It definitely gets your adrenaline going. I felt very adventurous. By the time we got down, there was essentially only time for dinner and sleeping, but again, the only thing here is the glacier, so that was fine. We had seriously considered skipping the glacier because of the weather, but I am so incredibly glad we went anyway. It was truly a sight to see.