November 26 - New Zealand: Franz Josef Glacier (South Island)
We woke up bright and early for our climb on the Franz Josef Glacier. At 8:30, we went to our guiding company (Glacier Guides www.nzguides.com) to check in and get our gear for the walk. They gave us Columbia raincoats, warm hats, gloves, waterproof mittens, rain pants, warm socks, and ice boots with trikes (big spiky teeth on the bottom). We also each got an ice axe. Basically, we were all decked out and looked like quite the climbers. I was impressed with us, and we hadn't even done anything!
Walk to the Glacier
There were 20 of us going up with 2 guides on the full day tour. We all climbed aboard the Glacier Guides bus and rode the quick ride to the glacier. There, we lugged our stuff (wearing our own hiking boots) down a rainforest path until we got to the moraines of the glacier. There, our guide Andy told us about the history of the glacier as well as glacier stats. The Franz Josef Glacer is one of the most "dynamic" glaciers in the world, because of its proximity to a relatively tropical area. It's surrounded by rain forests but is constantly "fed" by snowstorms at the top of the glacier. It moves at an unbelievable rate of 5 meters a day - sometimes forwards must mostly backwards. Andy showed us where - according to the treeline - the glacier had been in the 1950s.
Andy also told us that had already walked over 13 fault lines just to get to the point where we were on the moraines. Pretty unbelievable.
Franz Josef Glacier
The glacier was definitely huge, and we could see the blue ice underneath the white. Incredible. The temperature had certainly dropped a few degrees during our walk just to this point. But we didn't care. We just wanted to get on the ice. We walked for another 10 minutes to get to the base of the glacier, where we changed into our ice boots and some people put on their water gear. The group split into two - Andy took the first half of the group, and those of us in the second half went with Penny and Richard. Penny was a cheerful girl with a huge smile and and a big ice axe, which she used to carve out steps for us along the way. Richard, apparently, had been on the glacier since early this morning carving ice steps. This is something they do for the "novice" climbers.
The Climb
We started our climb, and - of course - it started to rain. Andy had told us that the top of the glacier got an average of 100 meters of snow a year, and that a rainy day on the glacier is a typical day. But we were glad we had nice rain jackets and we were all layered up pretty quickly.
One of the most amazing things about the glacier were the crevasses and the caves. Some of the crevasses were incredibly deep, and the guides didn't want us to get too close to them (understandably so). Penny said that - because of the dynamic movement of the ice and water - the glacier changes every day. It's never the same as it was yesterday. So we couldn't be too careful.
After about an hour on the ice, the slopes got just a bit steeper but it was still a relatively easy climb. The trikes on our boots helped significantly to keep us from slipping. Penny and Richard had us stop for a quick break to introduce ourselves to one another and to practice using our ice axes. It's not as if we were going to do any vertical climbing, but the ice axes would help keep our balance on some of the more slippery sections. Penny's demonstration of the ice axe involved a flick of the wrist and an "uuungh" sound which she suggested because it helps dig the axe in. She also recommended, in lieu of the "uuungh", perhaps yelling an ex-boyfriends name.
Cheeky Kea
Richard and Penny got very excited when a large green bird with orange under-wings flew up. This is a type of parrot called a Kea and is often found at higher elevation in New Zealand. Richard said that the Kea has been found to be one of the most clever birds in the world, and Penny said it's quite "cheeky". The Kea loves rubber and often tears the rubber off of cars. Jon and I started laughing at this, because we remember - many years ago - seeing something about them on the Discovery Channel. Except that we missed the main description of the birds and instead only saw a bunch of parrots ripping apart a car. So we called it the "insane parrot" disease. I guess they weren't really insane, but were just Cheeky Keas.
We stopped for lunch at 1:00 and waited for the other group - who had taken a slightly different route - to make it up to meet us. There were 4 thermoses of hot chocolate for the 20 of us, and our group had all four of them. So we saved 2 of them for the other half. Quite nice of us, actually, considering we were on a big block of ice and were very, very cold and wet. Jon and I had leftover pasta for lunch. Last night we purposely made too much pasta so we could bring it for today's lunch. It worked out quite nicely.
After lunch, we climbed into the more complicated part of the glacier. Toward the bottom, it had been basically smooth although sloped. Up higher, it was much more jagged and crevasse-like. More than once we had to walk on ladders to get across ravines. I definitely felt as though I was climbing a glacier.
By the end of the day, we were soaked through and through. It was pouring rain, and even the best rain clothing couldn't stop the wet. I had stopped feeling my toes hours before, but the entire climb was exhilarating. On our way down, Andy, Penny, and Richard pulled the entire group together to tell us the legend of the glacier. So we stood there in the pouring rain - not caring how cold and wet we were - and listened to Andy's hysterical rendition of the legend.
The Legend of the Glacier
There was a local Maury girl who loved to climb and climb and climb. Every day, she would climb the mountains of the area and would stop and chat with the two Gods who lived on the mountain to our right. (At this point, Andy turned to the mountain and yelled, "HELLO GODS!". Richard quickly followed with a "OY GODS!", and then Andy continued on with the rest of the story). After a time, the girl fell in love with a fisherman who lived near the ocean. She spent many weeks with him, but soon began to miss the lure of the mountains. She talked her lover into making a climb with her, despite his misgivings and desire to stay near the ocean. They came to the area and began their climb. Being the experienced climber she was, she ran and jumped and climbed with no problems, but her lover lagged behind. When she reached the mountain to the right, she stopped to talk to the Gods. (Again, "HELLO GODS!!!".... "OY GODS!"....) Still, her lover trudged slowly on. Soon after, she climbed the flat face of the mountain to our left. She realized that her lover was moving quite slowly and leaned over the ledge to find him. He was hanging on just a few feet below her, and began to lose his grip. She lay down on her stomach to extend him and hand, but when he reached up he lost his grip and fell to his death. The girl was devastated and began to weep. Her tears filled the ravine and swept her lover out to the ocean. Even then, she couldn't stop crying. The amount of tears threatened to flood the neighboring villages and destroy many homes. The Gods knew they had to stop it. ("HELLO GODS!"... "OY GODS!!!!") So they extended their arms to pull in the clouds of the east and the west so the temperature dropped and her tears froze. And that's how the glacier was formed.
After Andy was done with the story, we all stared at him for moment. And then we clapped with our very wet gloves. He took a few bows and decided to use us to tease one of the guides (Mike) from another guiding company. Mike had walked by with his group on an overlooking ice mound, and Andy yelled "HELLO GOD" to him. So, for the joke, we all climbed up on an ice mound to see the group. And all at once - all 20 of us - yelled "HELLO GOD!". You could see him cringe even though he was 100 feet away.
On the way down, my feet were so wet that my socks were squishing. So despite our fabulous day on the glacier, I was ready to be on the bottom and in my own boots. The climb down was slippery because of the added melting and the rocks but we made it safely although hardly dry.
Back at the glacier office, we turned in our gear and went to the cafe for some excellent hot chocolate. By this time, it was 6:00 and Jon and I felt as if everything we owned was soaked. In fact, everything was. Our backpacks were soaked through and through, including our cameras and our money belts. The passports looked as though they'd been put through the wash. Even our underwear was wet. So - on the way back to the campsite - we decided that we couldn't bear to spend tonight in the tent.
Drying Time
Before the climb this morning, we'd checked out of our cabin and set up the tent in the grass in their campsites with the intention of camping. But we knew we couldn't spend tonight in the tent. Nothing would dry in this cold and wet weather. We needed a room with a heater. So we stopped by the office to see what they had. The cabins we were in last night were sold out, which we knew. But they did have something called a "Tourist Flat". This was a little bungalow on the side of the campground with a kitchen. We were thrilled to step inside and find that it actually had TWO rooms and four beds.
So I promptly spread everything we owned over the beds to dry. I'm not kidding. Every dollar, receipt, and piece of paper was taken out and laid over the bed. Jon laughed when he saw all our dollar bills and travelers checks covering the beds. I told him I would roll in it if he wanted me to. We also threw a bunch of stuff in the laundry to wash and dry and began to cook dinner.
We had pasta again, making enough for lunch tomorrow, and polished off a bottle of Linden Cabernet. When we turned in, we slept in the second bedroom and left the heat on high in the other room. This way, we hoped that everything would be dry by tomorrow.