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canadian_turtleMood: 
|| Sick
Tune : n/a
July 9: There is very little to do in the town of Franz Josef. It's mainly situated where it is, because it's close to the Franz Josef Glacier which is the main tourist attraction in the area. Unfortunately you're not allowed anywhere near the glacier really unless you go on a so called "Glacier Guide", though I suppose it's for the best as going out there by yourself, inexperienced, would be very dangerous. For today I had one of the Glacier Guides planned and we had to report to their office by 12.30 in the afternoon.
First we had to get properly dressed for the hike up the glacier. This meant I was wearing five layers of tops: singlet, shirt, long sleeved shirt, hoodie and a raincoat provided by them. They also provided us with water-resistant trousers, thick woolen socks (bringing the total pair of socks I was wearing up to 3) and big hiking boots, with crampons in a separate bag for around our middle. After all that was done and everyone was checked in we went to the bus that'd bring us to the glacier. Our first tour guide was called Bryce (not an accountant) and the second one that finally took my group up the glacier was named Ryan (which totally made me think of Captain Awesome xD).
We had to hike for several miles through rock remains etcetera (stuff pushed off the glacier) before we finally reached the ice. When we did so we got a short demonstration on how to attach the crampons to our shoes (spikes for grip on the ice). I managed to figure it all out by myself and had a bit of a test walk. Crampons are supposed to make you feel safer, like you have a better grip on the ice underneath your feet, but for the first 10 minutes or so it had the exact opposite effect on me. Ten thin spikes underneath each shoe instead of flat soles made me feel like I was balancing and nearly toppling over. But I got the hang of it, and so did everyone else, and soon we were off.
Ryan up front, hacking steps into the ice with a pick every now and then and the rest of us following him close behind. The first part was the hardest because it was quite steep and high (some parts had ropes at the sides though, so we could pull ourselves up), but once we had that part over with it was awesome. During the hike I mostly chatted with an Australian girl called Alana and a Dutch girl called Susan, we spent quite a few hours together so it was nice having someone to hang out with it.
When we reached the top and had a moment to look at our surroundings it was absolutely stunning. The Franz Josef Glacier (together with the Fox one close-by) is one of two locations in the world where a glacier meets the rainforest (it should be impossible because a glacier needs cold weather, a rainforest warm) so it was really quite spectacular.
The best parts though, without a doubt, were when we encountered clear blue ice; it's absolutely jaw dropping. For the first cave we encountered we had to go down a bit and climb inside of it, not many people of our group did this but I did as it was the first blue ice we saw and it was the sole reason I booked the trip for. Later on we went through a large gap in the ice as well where the blue walls rose above us and we had to slide sideways through the gap - that was so much fun! And good thing too we were wearing the rain jackets because we got totally wet doing that.
The Franz Josef Glacier as seen when we approached it
Close-up
Ryan hacking a path
The pretty view (behind us though, so we didn't see it often)
First glimpse of dirt-covered and blue ice
Prettier pure blue ice!
Here is a good example of the dirt covering the ice
The first cave
Close-up of the shoes (kinda)
The gap we slid through xD
On the right hand side you can see the steps we walked down from
The gap you can see here was formed by an earthquake because the spot we were standing on was on the edge of two different plates!
Ladder we had to walk up and down
July 10: My plan for today had been to do a few short hikes in the area for different views on the Franz Josef Glacier. But over the past few days I already felt a cold coming up and today I woke up feeling really bad... Not wanting to be sick for the rest of my trip I decided to take it easy and try to get better asap. So I only got out of bed to do my laundry, to shower and make some soup. Other than that all my time was spent in bed, catching up online and trying to acquire the Torchwood special (from which I finally managed to get the first 2 episodes after 6 hours and that took a lot of work >.<).
More pictures can be found HERE.
|| Sick Tune : n/a
July 9: There is very little to do in the town of Franz Josef. It's mainly situated where it is, because it's close to the Franz Josef Glacier which is the main tourist attraction in the area. Unfortunately you're not allowed anywhere near the glacier really unless you go on a so called "Glacier Guide", though I suppose it's for the best as going out there by yourself, inexperienced, would be very dangerous. For today I had one of the Glacier Guides planned and we had to report to their office by 12.30 in the afternoon.
First we had to get properly dressed for the hike up the glacier. This meant I was wearing five layers of tops: singlet, shirt, long sleeved shirt, hoodie and a raincoat provided by them. They also provided us with water-resistant trousers, thick woolen socks (bringing the total pair of socks I was wearing up to 3) and big hiking boots, with crampons in a separate bag for around our middle. After all that was done and everyone was checked in we went to the bus that'd bring us to the glacier. Our first tour guide was called Bryce (not an accountant) and the second one that finally took my group up the glacier was named Ryan (which totally made me think of Captain Awesome xD).
We had to hike for several miles through rock remains etcetera (stuff pushed off the glacier) before we finally reached the ice. When we did so we got a short demonstration on how to attach the crampons to our shoes (spikes for grip on the ice). I managed to figure it all out by myself and had a bit of a test walk. Crampons are supposed to make you feel safer, like you have a better grip on the ice underneath your feet, but for the first 10 minutes or so it had the exact opposite effect on me. Ten thin spikes underneath each shoe instead of flat soles made me feel like I was balancing and nearly toppling over. But I got the hang of it, and so did everyone else, and soon we were off.
Ryan up front, hacking steps into the ice with a pick every now and then and the rest of us following him close behind. The first part was the hardest because it was quite steep and high (some parts had ropes at the sides though, so we could pull ourselves up), but once we had that part over with it was awesome. During the hike I mostly chatted with an Australian girl called Alana and a Dutch girl called Susan, we spent quite a few hours together so it was nice having someone to hang out with it.
When we reached the top and had a moment to look at our surroundings it was absolutely stunning. The Franz Josef Glacier (together with the Fox one close-by) is one of two locations in the world where a glacier meets the rainforest (it should be impossible because a glacier needs cold weather, a rainforest warm) so it was really quite spectacular.
The best parts though, without a doubt, were when we encountered clear blue ice; it's absolutely jaw dropping. For the first cave we encountered we had to go down a bit and climb inside of it, not many people of our group did this but I did as it was the first blue ice we saw and it was the sole reason I booked the trip for. Later on we went through a large gap in the ice as well where the blue walls rose above us and we had to slide sideways through the gap - that was so much fun! And good thing too we were wearing the rain jackets because we got totally wet doing that.
The Franz Josef Glacier as seen when we approached it
Close-up
Ryan hacking a path
The pretty view (behind us though, so we didn't see it often)
First glimpse of dirt-covered and blue ice
Prettier pure blue ice!
Here is a good example of the dirt covering the ice
The first cave
Close-up of the shoes (kinda)
The gap we slid through xD
On the right hand side you can see the steps we walked down from
The gap you can see here was formed by an earthquake because the spot we were standing on was on the edge of two different plates!
Ladder we had to walk up and down
July 10: My plan for today had been to do a few short hikes in the area for different views on the Franz Josef Glacier. But over the past few days I already felt a cold coming up and today I woke up feeling really bad... Not wanting to be sick for the rest of my trip I decided to take it easy and try to get better asap. So I only got out of bed to do my laundry, to shower and make some soup. Other than that all my time was spent in bed, catching up online and trying to acquire the Torchwood special (from which I finally managed to get the first 2 episodes after 6 hours and that took a lot of work >.<).
More pictures can be found HERE.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-17 09:53 am (UTC)your pics make me want to go to NZ even more!!!
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:30 pm (UTC)All joking aside, you should TOTALLY go and I can tell you what is awesome and what is not xD
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Date: 2009-07-17 10:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-17 11:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-17 10:25 am (UTC)Did you ever get claustrophobic while going through the small crevasses?
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:31 pm (UTC)Luckily I am not clastrophobic so I didn't have to miss out on anything :)
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Date: 2009-07-19 02:41 pm (UTC)I watched a Man vs. Wild episode where he went through glaciers and I just couldn't even imagine what would happen if he'd gotten stuck lol but you and everyone didn't so yay!
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Date: 2009-07-17 01:35 pm (UTC)*o* Must be a whole lot of fun+effort!!
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Date: 2009-07-17 01:40 pm (UTC)Hope u dont mind!!
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:32 pm (UTC)The first half was quite hard because we went up really steep but luckily that was only at the beginning after that it was pretty flat and downhill :)
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Date: 2009-07-17 03:07 pm (UTC)The glacier pictures are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!
hee funny you found an Aussie and a Dutch....were they a clone of you and Jules somehow XD
ooops not good that you got sick :(
no subject
Date: 2009-07-17 11:34 pm (UTC)Haha no they weren't
as crazyat all like me and Jules, alasI know :( I thought I was over it the day before yesterday but then yesterday I felt really crap again. Ugh, I have to go to SDCC/Disney/etc, I don't want to be sick!
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Date: 2009-07-17 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-17 11:34 pm (UTC)And thanks, I hope so too, I am going to the US soon!
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Date: 2009-07-17 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-17 11:35 pm (UTC)I didn't go to Mt Cook unfortunately, no time :( (currently at airport - flying back to Sydney). At least I flew over it when I did the skydive :)
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Date: 2009-07-17 07:01 pm (UTC)What I'm trying to say is: Your trip is Rocking.
Hope you're feeling better!!
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:36 pm (UTC)Thanks <3
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Date: 2009-07-17 08:52 pm (UTC)Blue ice!
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Date: 2009-07-17 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 11:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2009-07-18 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 11:40 pm (UTC)