Glacier Walk | NZ 7/16

Glacier Ice Walking

“From its origins high in the Southern Alps, the Franz Josef Glacier descends deep into the lush rainforest of Westland National Park”

25th Jan 2011.

We stayed at Alpine Glacier Motel a cosy one for that town. But when you are there in one of the best carved pieces of earth, cosy room matters hardly. We had Glacier Ice walk from “Franz Josef Glacier Guides” and driving all the way to Wanaka. Odometer to clock little more than 300 Kms of drive, that day after a half a day hike at the glaciers. And we made it to Wanaka just before the sunset. 😉

I had my reservations for the half-a-day Glacier Hike which runs roughly 4.5 hours with 2 hours of ice time. Though I had few encounters with snow and ice, I was looking forward for this one as it will be real ice walking with proper equipment. We got enough training on To-Do and to-not-to-Do at Fox Glacier Guides office before the trip. Their office built with aesthetic touches which would for sure remind forest living. We collected our stuff from hat to boots with accessories to use on ice.

After waiting enough, we had been picked up by a eco-friendly bus and that went all the way to the base of the Franz Josef Glacier. However, we felt like we had been dropped at a middle of a jungle. Again after brief instructions, we had been escorted into thick jungle. After 30-40 minutes, first sights of a plain field found which without explanation, we understood that they its been created by the mighty ice and the water over the million years (yes- everything here will be quoted in millions of history. :P).

Am pretty sure, I felt the symptoms of tiredness at the base, even before we started. I guess that sultry, less oxygen environment burned enough of the calories I got that morning. Weather was dull and had no interest to rain or shine. We gathered at the plain and the guide gave us some interesting information. Ice looked pretty close and obviously everyone guessed a couple of KMs when asked about the distance between ice and us. I learnt that it was nothing 4 Kms and that looked pretty close which was pretty hard to believe. Here everything will be at bit blown-up size and from the distance, all those will look normal to our eyes. Same way, most of us were wrong to guess the distance how much the ice stretched horizontally. That measured 2 Kms which I couldn’t believe at all.

Well, after those interesting pieces information, we got separated into 3 groups based on the walking speed. We shoved ourselves in the neutral group and walked fast and joined the front liners quickly. Those 4 kms looks a lot alike an easy walk, but definitely no matter what we ate that morning, nothing will be left to give some energy. At the end, there is a huge dirt mountain which is made of layers of crushed ice and dirt and huge stones rolled from the top of the mountain all the way down to the foot. Its no less than a small hill by any means. It was quite hard to conquer that small mountain. Only the hope and interest of ice will get you going. After that mountaineering, we will be advised to use boot-forks (with a tutorial, ofcourse).

Walking on the ice with the special equipment is fun. By all means it’s like walking on a road with your best shoes you can count on. It safe, provides good grip and not a symptom of ice or its cold. What else anyone need at that place. To make things more easy, its not cold at all. Lookslike the altitude is very low which requires hardly nothing on top of our regular cloths. Though the place looks extremely dangerous (its indeed dangerous), those guides take the extreme good care of us. Staircases are made every hour to keep the place is fit for exploration. This place is ever changing. Not in years, months or in days but changes in minutes. Its quite visible for the naked eyes. One got to see to believe it. 😉

After walking through the splits and cliffs of ice, we reached a flat in no time and they called that’s the maximum height or distance we would be venturing on the ice. That was little disappointing. I thought that I should have chosen Heli-hike for better experience of ice. Ice is good but not the best of its color. I could get the chances to explore aqua blue ice caves (covered in full day hike).

Anyhow, our carried lite lunch was handy to get some of the lost energy. It was one of the oddest lunch places we ever ate. 😀

Rest of the journey back to the base was easy and noiseless. We happily shed few KGs of accessories back at their office and got into one of their interesting coffee shops.

A long and one of the most beautiful drive of atleast 300 Kms was waiting sheepishly in front of me.

Download Ice Walking here