The Franz Josef Glacier
Guides is the largest tour company in all of NZ, also owned by the Maori tribe
who made some good investment decisions. The guiding company had some pretty
good gear including boots and crampons, as well as raincoats and storm pants.
I've noticed here in NZ that most tour companies have full gear for their
activities which is great for tourists like us.
We were expecting rain today
but amazingly, the weather was great! Our guides told us that being the wettest
part of the country, appreciate the sun whenever you can.
The hike was definitely a
highlight of NZ. It started off with a quick tramp through rainforest suddenly
giving way to the rock valley leading up to the glacier. Waterfalls cascaded
down on both sides of the valley. The day was marred when I lost my sunglasses somewhere
on the track.
The weather was variable on
the ice as we walked through deep ice crevasses, through ice tunnels and walked
on the frozen imperceptibly flowing glacier.
I was really glad for the
advice we got from friend and the Internet to do the full day tour rather than
the half. The guides told us where the half way mark was and it barely got
started on to the glacier!
We repeated our dinner at the
Landing then ending off the day with a soak in the Glacier Hot Pools included
with the glacier tour.
No comments:
Post a Comment