On Top of the World {or Glacier}

Friday:

Back on the bus, this time for 8 hours, heading down the West Coast to Franz Joseph. Another beautiful day drive. The highway goes along the coastline with the Southern Alps on one side and the Tasman Sea on the other. The drive also had a lot of one way bridges which was kind of crazy. Today's main pit stop is in Punakaiki, famous for the Pancake Rocks. These limestone rocks center around a blowhole which during high tide puts on quite a show. Unfortunately it was low tide but this is what it would look like.

The most random thing happened though when we were at the Pancake Rocks. First we ran into two Dutch boys we had met our first night in Nelson. Thirty seconds later, a fellow American Evatter and her parents showed up. It was the craziest thing ever. We had plans to meet up in Queenstown but that fell through.

Next stop is the main street of Franz Joseph or more like a street with a petrol station on it. We checked in, did a grocery run and watch the first Lord of the Rings movie before bed. Yes another 10 p.m. bedtime.

Saturday:
I just chilled a glacier! How many people can say that? The day started off rainy and continued up until the actual ice. Franz Joseph gets an average of 6 meters of rainfall a year. According to the guide, the glacier (or glay-see-eer as he said) is better when it rains because the dirt is washed away exposing the blue ice. The views on top of the glacier definitiely made up for the fact that my Vera Bradley backpack was soaking wet within ten minutes. The Franz Joseph Glacier Hike Company provided all of our cold weather clothing; we got water proof jackets, trousers, boots, wool socks, gloves, hats and crampons. Crampons are spikes that go on the boots to grip the ice. I'm extremely graceful so they were very helpful when scaling down the slick surface.

Due to numbers, Katie, Bekah and I got put into group #1, the extreme adventure group. We were the first ones on the glacier. Our guide, who looked like Carrot Top, really knew his stuff. At points on the trail, he had to pick away at the ice to maintain the path. I even got a few swings in though it was quickly taken back before I hurt myself. City girl. These little minute breaks allowed me to get some amazing pictures.

Hiking up Franz Joseph Glacier

There were three Danish boys in our group who we hung out with after the hike. As part of the hike, we got free admission into the Glacier Hot Pools. I was expecting mineral pools but they were really glorified hot tubs. After dinner, the six of us went on a local hike to see glow worms. The worms glow blue at night. The hike was kind of spooky so I'm glad we had some protection. The boys were so sweet and we ended up running into them in Queenstown. One way or another, we've run into everyone we've met and I love it!

Cheers for now,
Kim

{Hostel Review: In Franz Joseph, we stayed at Metrose. It was a cozy accomadation with FREE internet and movie rentals. The rooms were basic and there were only two bathrooms upstairs. Also we found out about the glow worm tour through the hostel.}