Ice climbing!!

The route we took down the West coast is completely cut off from the rest of the island by the huge mountain ranges that run down the middle. The stormy weather that rolls in from the west is pushed up the mountains, making it rain and snow for 200 days in the year. Our first stop was the Franz Josef Glacier, a massive cascading lump of ice slowly making its way down the mountainside, which looks like a huge wave splashing down the side of the mountain, frozen in time...

We arrived in the evening and had a quick wander down to the glacier but the next day was going to be much more fun! Sara went on a helicopter ride over the Franz Josef glacier, the fox glacier (just 20km down the road), Mount Tazman and Mount Cook (the highest mountain in Australasia). I decided that that was far too easy and opted for a day of 'Ice Climbing', climbing up huge vertical walls (and overhangs) of ice armed with ice piks and spiky boots! The first part of the day involved walking half way up the glacier to an area of clear white ice walls and lots of deep valleys cut through the ice. At the beginning we were walking on stairs that are carved out of the ice by the guides for people who go on day walks there but as we made our way past them we found ourselves walking up hills made only of ice and through little streams made by melting ice. Once we reached the first wall we had got used to the gear on our feet, rigid soled walking boots with large crampons (metal spikes about 5cm long coming out at all angles from the sole), and it was time to get aquatinted with our ice piks!

The idea was to smash an ice pik into the wall with each hand and walk up the wall by digging the toe of each boot (each of which had four spikes coming out of it) into the ice wall and pushing yourself up. The first wall wasn't too bad but the second, which was 25m high and had an overhang at the top, was murder! We climbed six walls before it was time to go down and I loved every minute of it!!

After that it was over to the Fox Glacier for a quick look at that one (you don't see a glacier every day after all!) before heading on further South...





Franz Josef Glacier