Franz Josef

Day 1: We left Lake Mahinapua early doors, all with hangovers and some with embarrassing stories from the night before. None more so than one lad, who had gotten so drunk, he ended up urinating over the girl on his bottom bunk (sorry for including this but I felt I needed to).

It was actually Buzz who announced it over the Microphone, prompting a variety of responses throughout the bus, even though we didn't actually find out which guy was responsible until later that same day (It wasn't me, I promise) Highly embarrassing for him obviously but others seemed to find it quite funny. Though not the girl it happened to of course, we felt pretty sorry for her. Some people just can't handle their drink I guess!

Anyway - moving on, on our way to Franz Josef we cast our votes for the best outfit from the night. After seeing first-hand the amount of time and effort she put in and the impressive end result, my vote went to Courtnie as the Indian. It was close apparently but Buzz announced soon after that Courtnie was indeed the winner. A free Canyon Swing for her - not bad for making something out of bin bags!

We arrived into Franz Josef early afternoon and instantly signed up and paid for our Glacier Hikes. In the last couple of months, the foot of the Glacier has become unsafe, meaning the old hike that many previous visitors to New Zealand would have done, is no longer available. This means you now have to take a Helicopter ride further up the Glacier, where it's still safe to walk around. Having never been in a Helicopter before and it being something I've always wanted to do, I wasn't too upset with this change in situation and neither were many others.

Myself, Cahal, Casey, Courtnie, Erika and Ginge all elected for the more expensive option, which included a scenic flight over the whole Glacier and therefore much longer in the Helicopter (20 mins instead of 5). They gave us the option to go that afternoon but we decided to leave it until the following morning. Franz Josef is a 2-night stop for Kiwi-Experience so we had the time, we thought.

The afternoon was spent exploring the town, before retiring to the hostel for a soak in the huge Hot-Tub. In the evening, we had some Beers and a few games of Pool in the bar. This was followed by a bar competition to see who could pick up a Cereal Box off the floor using nothing but their mouth. It was made smaller and smaller every round and, being 6'5", I didn't make it that far as you can imagine. Although, the competition was actually won by a marine, who wasn't that much shorter than me. Maybe I need to work on my flexibility!

Day 2: We woke up to huge disappointment after finding out that all trips to the Glacier were cancelled, more than likely for the whole day. The visibility needs to be good enough for the Helicopters to fly and it was so foggy that there was no chance they could. Even more gutting was the fact that we could have done it the day before but didn't think it would be an issue. Never mind - hopefully we would get the chance to go the following morning. Fingers crossed.

Not letting it spoil our day, 5 of us headed out for a walk to get to the foot of the Glacier, which it's still possible to visit. Quite a long walk to get there but it worth it to get an impressive look all the way up. The very bottom is taped off but we were still able to get pretty close. At least we could say we got to have a look at it, if the worst happened and we didn´t get the chance to hike up.

After the long walk back into town, we settled into the Hot-Tub again before another evening of Beer and Pool.

Day 3: I woke up and thought we had been unlucky again when first looking out the window and seeing more fog. Thankfully though, the hostel had got the all-clear from the Hike office and we were good to go. It was clearer above the Glacier apparently. Good news.

Unfortunately, we still couldn't do the scenic flight but that was due to it's timing rather than conditions. As Courtnie & Casey had a couple of days to kill there, they stuck with that option whereas the rest of us did one called Ice Explorer. Less time in the Helicopter but more hiking. A shame we couldn't go together but we were relieved we could at least get up there.

Myself, Ginge, Cahal and Erika made our way down to HQ to get kitted out with our warm weather gear and Crampons (Ice Spikes) before meeting our guide (who was the spitting image of Prince Harry) and making our way down to the Heli zone. The flight was pretty short (only 5 minutes) but it was amazing and I loved it. The best part is undoubtedly when they turn it sidewards, where you can really feel your stomach go.

We started hiking mid-morning and were up on the glacier for about 3 hours. The crampons make it pretty easy to walk on the ice, meaning we were able to do a fair bit of climbing up as well. The glacier is full of tight openings and parts we needed to crawl through, which made for a fantastic hike and another brilliant experience. It wasn't quite so brilliant for this guy from another group though - he slipped and dislocated his middle finger! Thankfully, he was ok and didn't mind us taking some pretty gruesome pictures of it.

Overall, I loved the hike and was delighted we got the chance to actually do it. It's not every day you get the chance to climb a glacier and it was a great thing to do. We finished up early afternoon and were instantly back on Buzz's bus bound for Wanaka.