Day 2 in Franz Josef and we needed to get prepared for the glacier. It was a nice looking day and after breakfast (free at the hotel restaurant) we came back and got ready. Dan and I layered up, put in our contacts and slathered on the sunscreen. We got to the glacier guides hut a little early and so we spent some time walking (I claim it was a warm-up, hehe) and headed back for our 8:45 check- in. We got our gear which consisted of over-trousers (I got these but dan did no t), socks and boots, crampons (spikes for your boots to grip the ice) and raincoats. I will just say right now that Dan and I thought it would be colder but...we were way too layered. It was a hot day and even being on ice it wasn't much colder. So anyway we have our gear and get loaded onto a bus. This bus takes us to the car park near the glacier. Near only means close but not really that close. The guides told us that we needed to walk 1 km through the rain forest to get to the river bed and another 2.5 km to get to the terminal head or the front edge of the glacier. We stopped in the valley and split into 3 groups depending on athletic ability and how fast we could walk. Dan and I volunteered to go into group 1 and we totally made the right choice (will explain later). After 40 mins or so of hiking in the river bed and over rocks we made it to the terminal head. This was a very steep hill and required us to make a running head start and run as hard as we could to make it up. If you didn't make you had to go down the slide and try again. Dan and I made it up on the first try. Told you we made the right choice. Now I am just pulling your leg because but Dan and I do think a slide would be nice to get down. We actually had a 20min or so hike up zigzagging up the hill. Once at the top we could finally see ice. We had seen the glacier from the river bed but here it was right in front of us. We had to stop for a few mins to put on our crampons and get prepared for the ice. Here I bandaged my right ankle to prevent and further blisters. The boots they gave us don't fit very well and so I had a blister already forming. Once that was all done we had a short explanation of what to expect when we were on the ice. Then we got to our first steps. The guide needed to go a short way ahead to make sure that the path was safe and to ice pick a cleaner path. The company has crews on the ice early I the morning mapping out a path but even in the short amount of time the guides still need to carve. We made our first assent and the worst thing that could happen happened. It's not the worst i guess but still sad. Our camera ran out of batteries. Noooooooo. So we had to use the small point and shoot and out flip cam. It turned out okay and we were probably able to enjoy it more but still who knows how the pictures will turn out. We had the most amazing hike on the glacier. We winded up the path through crevices and tunnels and went much higher than either of the other two groups. We were that much faster than they. We we got back to the valley we only had the short path back and we were finished with our hike. It was about 4.5 to 5 hours in duration and was very exhausting.
Our guide told us we should wait until later to go to the hot pools and so we took his advice and waited. We instead did something Dan and I discussed on the glacier. Since we didn't have the nice camera available and the views from the glacier were nice but not quite spectacular we made the spontaneous decision to see the glaciers from above. We arranged for a helicopter tour of both glaciers. So we rushed back to the hotel and ate the left over pizza (I knew it would come in handy) and got the batteries for the camera. We made it back to the helicopter office within 45 mins for our 3pm flight. This was to be Dan and my first helicopter ride and we were both pretty excited. It is a wonderful experience and the scenery was totally beautiful. I assure you we got some amazing pictures. Especially when we made a snow landing near the top of the Fox Glacier. In my opinion it was worth every penny and I am so glad we did it. It truly made the glacier experience great and combined with the hike I feel Franz Josef was the funnest overall experience plus it was super adventurous.
We relaxed after our heli tour and made it out to dinner. We went to the restaurant that was not open the night before. To be honest I wouldn't have minded it being closed. I totally preferred the other restaurant. At 8 or so we made it to the Glacier Hot Pools. Dan and I were quite intrigued by these pools. They were not natural hot pools like we thought but they were really neat. There were three pools at three temperatures. Staring at 36 degrees Celsius and increasing to 38 and 40 (~ 104 degrees Fahrenheit) degrees. It was fun to transition to hotter waters. After an hour or so it was time to get out. I was pretty steamy but I really think it helped my muscles. Neither Dan nor I are horribly sore. My calves are just a little sore but I blame that on my posture after my blister developed. Sleepy time again.
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