January 30, 2002
1/29/02 Franz Josef Glacier to
1/29/02 Franz Josef Glacier to Greymouth (Kelly)
We were all exhausted last night so we wound up not going out for birthday beers...of course, this was upon Phillip's request! We stayed in and went to bed...had to wake up by 7:15am in order to be at the glacier tour building by 8:30. Once we checked in, were fitted for boots, and handed our ice talonz we boarded a bus that took us approximately 1.5 km away from the glacier. We hiked up a never ending slope with a lot of loose rocks and sand flying ever where. The boots we haqd on weighed a ton. I felt like I was lugging around a dead body strapped to my feet. After walding forever, climbing up ladders and repelling down hills, we finally made it to the ice. Infact, the first thing Phillip says (one of his classic stupid jokes) "I only see ice, where is the glacier?!!" HA HA HA! The glacier was very impressive. We were standing on solid ice with a bunch of crevasses and crater in it. For a while ice as all you could see. I had never seen anything quite like this except for in textbooks. Believe it or not, we were in shorts!
We returned to our YHA...and we're off to Greymouth. We did go out for some drinks in Greymouth for Phillip's birthday...he thought this was legit because it was still his birthday back home! Before we got to the pub Jayne had a swell idea that today was going to be the day that I learned how to drive a standard car...this was a laugh :-) I actually did okay except for the part where I kept stalling!!
This was our last night with Jayne and Rober. They are dropping Phillip and I off tommorrow in Nelson so we can get ready for a 4 day trekk on the Abel Tasman Track. We'll see them again once we get to Melbourne though!