Ice Ice Baby

Well we rose early and packed a lunch to go on the glacier hike. Luckily they had booked us wrong so we only had the half day trip. Not sure I would have made the whole day. It was exhausting. First, we had to get boots and crampons...which fit over your boots and have spikes for the ice. The boots seemed to fit, but I developed blisters on the long walk up. We motored up to the base and then had to hike through a rainforest to get to the glacier bed and then 1.5 mile up to get to the ice. It was amazing. Tobias, who looked like Prince Harry, was our guide. He carried a huge pick and cleared our way onto the ice. There we explored tunnels and crevasses and glacier ponds. Franz Joseph Glacier is one of the largest on New Zealand.

We are all quite tired, but since it's Gemina's birthday, we are all going to the hot springs to soak and refresh our soar bodies. More photos of that to come.