Franz Josef Glacier Tour

Up about 7:00, same time as all the Magic Bus herd, they all horded the showers, so I had breakfast first. By 7:20, all the Magic Bus cows were in the kitchen, and all the showers were free, so I showered and by the time I finished showering, the hostel was virtually empty, all the Magic dudes were sitting on the bus, waiting for it to leave. I'm so glad I'm not on that tour!

Walked down to GG's (Franz Josef Glacier Guides...GG's is what Rosemary kept calling it) and got suited in their socks, boots and Goretex jacket and given a pair of Ice Talons and an ice axe. About 22 of us on the full-day trip. We got bussed to glacier and made a walk to the glacier and through a cave, then put on our crampons and hiked way up on the glacier.

It was awesome, way better than I thought. I was in the express group (the fast group), so we moved quite a bit faster than the other groups and made it farther up the glacier than the guide had ever taken a group before. All the guides carry big ice picks to chunk out stairs on the steaper sections of the ice flow. We traversed huge cracks in the ice, slid through tight ravines (if you were fat, you'd never be able to do it), went through ice caverns and tunnels. One section, we had to walk along this huge crack, but the bottom of it was filled with deep ice water. You wouldn't want to slip in, you'd freeze in an istant, and get wedged in. We had to straddle the ice water, with our ice crampons wedgegd in the ice on either side of the river, making sure each step was solid, lest we slip in. It was actually kind of scary. It was awesome!!!

About 12:30, had lunch, then continued up higher. Started to cloud over, and the guide heard on the walkie talkie that it was raining at Fox Glacier and it just started to rain in town. We got lucky, no rain for us! We went way up, near the top was this 15 foot tunnel, you had to crawl through on your hands and knees. The guide had never seen it before.

We finished about 4:00, got back to town, then back to the hostel. My feet were killing me from those boots. Watched "End of Days", had (free) soup at the hostel, then went to Cheeky Kea Cafe for supper. I couldn't be asked to cook anything for supper after the hike today.

When I got back from the glacier, the hostel lady was in my room making the bed of a guy who had checked out late. She remarked to me that I was alone in the room, and I said "Ya, until the next bus anyway." She said that that'll be tomorrow, there was no bus coming today. YAY! I got the room to myself. There was some stupid guy snoring last night, I didn't sleep that good.

Had supper at Cheeky's with "annoying guy" and ditched the cafe early with the excuse I needed to call my cousin, which was true, so tried calling, and a lady answered the phone, and I aksed for Rosemary, and she told me I had the wrong number. I said sorry, hung up and tried again. The same lady answered, and I asked for Rosemary, and she said, rather rudely, "Look, you just called here and I told you there's no Rosemary. This is blah, blah, blah...", I interrupted her, because I knew I had the right number, and I said, bluntly, "She's in unit 16." She's like, "Oh. Umm, sorry, unfortunately, I can't help you because I just started and nobody has showed me how to transfer calls." OI! She's like, "Sorry about that, can I take a message for her?" I said no, I'll call tomorrow. She tried again, "Are you sure?", I said ya, I'll call her tomorrow, and she tries once more, "I can take a message." Finally I say ya, ok, tell Rosemary that Todd called. She then asks me if Rosemary will be cross for not transferring the call, I say probably not. She then tells me she will give the message to Rosemary and to try calling again after 9:00 or tomorrow.

I hung up, then I got out my Lonely Planet and Let's Go and tried to decide how far to drive tomorrow, couldn't decide, so decided to late fate decide.

Went back to my room and was writing in my journal, and about 8:25, there's a knock at my door, I get up and answer it, a lady asks me if there's a Todd in the room, I say that's me, and she gives me a phone message from Rosemary, she was trying to return my phone call. Not sure why she didn't call my mobile?? Oh well. Probably won't get to see her before I leave tomorrow morning.

Tried again at 9:20 to call her, same dumb lady, she tried to transfer me, but cut me off.

Read for a while, then to bed.