Ki Ora(not sure of spelling)but thats a Maori Hello
Well just back from a 6hr trek up and down the glorious Franz Josef Glacier.(Im surprised Im on the net already cos I can feel my eyes closing forgive me for all the mistakes.But I knew if I didnt write it now I wouldnt of done at all)And all I can say is WOW.The views from the top(when we finally made it) were breathtaking.
We set off at 8.15 to be first kitted up in all our funky get up ,sexy blue over trousers,hats,gloves,mad boots plus ice tallons(really must check my spelling) and blue rain jacket.A bus load of backpackers all resembling smurfs heading to the foot of the glacier.It took us over 40mins to reach some Ice.When u first see it u think its closer than it actually is.We were so fooled.After this refreshing walk, we were all getting a bit hot under the collarr and had to take off one of our thousands of layers.(we all hav pretty much matching thermal underwear-longjohns and top-now theres a photo for the website).Then they split us into 3different groups depending on ability and fitness.Everyone wanted to b in group 2 which is average and no one wanted to go to group3 which is not so fit.But we bit the bullet and went for group 3 cos we all wanted to be together.In the end it didnt really matter cos we all went the same way and we even by passed group 2 who kept holding everyone up.Barry and his girlies plus Mike from Canada and Lucy from England were under the careful guidance of Rich.He was really good stopping every so often to tell us where to b extra careful and he even threw some ice down a crevice to illustrate how deep it was.None of us heard the ice hit the ground.Scary moment.U really realise how high up u are and how close u are to the drop.While heading up we passed the Step Cutters, other guides who god love them had been cutting steps out of the ice since seven that morning.And they were wearing shorts hacking hell out of the ice with their Pix axes.Mad buggers.While going up the huge ice steps u do also have robe to grip too.And boy do u have to grip cos its very slippery.This steep climb takes over an hr as u hav to stop and start(mainly cos of group 2 slowing us)and Rich also has to hack away some dark ice.While walking its not that cold in fact u work up quite a sweat but then when we stopped for a small break(we all indulged in some junk food-needed a sugar rush)u feel it.Ur bum gets very cold sitting on the ice.In fact a few times it got stuck to it.Some adventourous and scary moments were endured as we had to walk through some tiny crevices(one time we even had to get on our knees to try and make it), tunnels, and walking over bridges made of literally a plank and some rope.We all overcame the scary challenges-Fee even made it look quite easy as she mastered the French Cross over step early on.(not sure what it was actually called-ah well-Im tired)We kept ourselves quite entertained by trying to think of songs with the word ice in it.We only managed to think of 3.eg “Ur As cold as Ice”, Ice Ice Baby, and some Outkast one.Can anyone think of any others?I think the high altitude was getting to us.Or maybe it was the sugar rush.
Over lunch Fee told us of how a friend of hers actually went up to one of the glaciers with a group and guide and got lost for several hrs.Thank god they were rescued but scary or what.Luckily for us Rich knew where he was goin or at least pretended too and brought us back down to safety.This is when he told us about how one Japenese lady ignored the yellow rope around the glacier saying “danger only guided groups may enter” and got hit with a lot of ice.She survived but Rich didnt know if she could walk after.Then another guy with his wheelchair crossed the barrier and luckily escaped a big ice block hitting him as it just landed right beside his wheelchair. Coming down was quite fun as it didnt seem to take so long and the ice was melting so we had a lot of slushy snow to slide down on.Some slippy moments for us all but no injuries thank god.
Me and Tee have taken loads of photos of our adventourous day.Im just too tired to put them up but u will see them.Hope ur all well and enjoying the sunny life at home while we freeze.Ah no its not that cold.In fact we ve been really lucky with the weather as its been sunny.Oh yeh………
ya didnt mention a famous Tee fall. She must of added another to her list shirley!!!!
Ah Dee you know me so well. Yes I did fall several times on my knees is slushy ice. Got wedged for a bit in a tunnel. Banged my head off a wall of ice but the piece de la resistance was me nearly falling in a pool of ice only to be saved by Triona, a wee slip of a thing! Twas lucky there.
Hi sis, miss your call yesterday, if you could ring home abot 1.15 lunchtime next
monday, love to talk to you, got home for lunch yesterday to mad house of
nephews and neice, wait to see how tall marky got, he become a man,
soon he be getting boners, woodies, hard-ons, stiffys, full on chubbies, he already
started rubbing himself off the furniture, as for scott and becks they probably
havnt changed abit……better get back to work, talk you later sis
Girls, you need something very special to recover from another deadly assault by Badger Boy. You need it.
What you need is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THY_G9dTyyw
That link doesn’t look like much, but follow it to a trip into your wildest fantasies! That chick doing the tongue thing does disturb me though. Ick. She probably licks cat’s arses for thrills, and we all know how we feel about that…