Franz Josef Glacier

HOLY BUJESUS.  Okay I'm gonna start from the beginning.  I woke up this morning at about 810a so I would have plenty of time to get ready and make a sandwich and whatnot, which I did (the sandwich was bomb.com).  Then I walked over to the main street of Franz Josef and hung out with a girl I had met on the bus yesterday that ended up on the same hike as me.  Once they started getting the 915a group ready we went over to the store.  I was then outfitted with rain pants ("trousers"), a big blue windbreaker (Smurf!), some wool socks, and some super soaked boots (size 5? weird).  So yeah, I was basically looking pretty freaking hot.  You'll see in the pictures, which will be soon in the coming (less than a week, I promises).  After we were all geared up and had signed a waiver or the likes we all hopped on a bus, which took us to a national park where the hike commenced.  After veering off the main path to one that said "Danger, do not go past this point if unguided or inexperienced," we finally came out to the valley floor of where the glacier was (some 2.4km away from us at that point).  There was a stream/river running through it and the mountains rising up on either sides were covered in rainforest and waterfalls.  It was beautiful, especially with a giant glacier staring me in the face a distance away.  At this point we broke up into three groups: Group 1- faster pace, smaller steps, for people in good condition and whatnot; Group 2- a bit slower, wider steps, for people somewhere in the middle; and Group 3- slow pace, wide steps, for people not feeling so great today.  I immediately thought, crap man, I am absolutely POSITIVE that I am not in good condition, but then the Canadian girl (Ashley, I believe) was like, let's be in Group 1 because I hear the other two groups suck to be in.  So it was decided.  I would be in Group 1, which was only about 10 or so people large.  We met our guide for the day, AJ, who talked a bit about what we would be doing, then we took off ahead of Groups 2 and 3 at a pretty good clip to reach the glacier before them.  Once at the glacier, we strapped on our crampons, aka chunky spikes, to our feet, had a snack, then started our climb up the glacier face, which at that point was mostly just rubble and rock.  It was really steep and, for me, pretty hard as far as physicality goes.  Finally we made it up on the ice, where we kept climbing, climbing, climbing, until we reached the "ice flats," where we broke for lunch.  At this point it was about 1230p, so we had already been hiking for two hours, at least.  It was nuts, and I have absolutely no problem in telling you that I had a very very difficult time and that the first half of it sucked.  Like, absolutely sucked.  After about 30 minutes (maybe more) of lunch, we packed up and headed towards the really blue stuff, which was higher up the glacier.  For the next four hours we hiked up a bit beyond the halfway point of the glacier (it's something like 220 meters deep at that point-- nuts), and then hiked back down, which didn't take more than an hour.  However, the four hours after lunch were absolutely incredible; the ice was so blue, and our group took a path that, apparently, only one other group had ever taken, then veered off even that path and started cutting our own steps.  AJ was a great guide and I'm definitely glad I had him.  On the hikes after lunch we crawled through a TINY ice cave, which was super wet (and ended the use of my gloves, COLDNESS!), were constantly between huge, sheer ice cliffs that formed tiny passageways for us to walk through, and were climbing up and over, then across, huge ice valleys.  It was so amazing.  At one point we had to stand around for about 20 minutes while AJ cut an entire new stairway for us to use (with a rope, of course) which was super steep and crazy, but it all worked out in the end, and once we got moving again we all were able to warm up our toesies.  After about 20 more minutes of hiking since the delay, we finally came out beyond the point that most full-day hikes go.  The views were absolutely incredible and the massiveness, power and strength of the glacier could never be put into words or shown in a picture, it's just that impressive.  The walk back down was super easy-- totally not hard at ALL.  I'm so so so glad that I pushed myself and decided to be in Group 1 because it was totally worth it and I'm still alive, albeit a bit tired and sore.  Yeah, I was in the back for the most part during the first half, but who cares?  Once up in the higher parts it was fine.  What amazed me was, once we made it up to the top, how far we had actually come since lunch.  I have a picture of our guide (kinda) pointing to where we ate lunch, and it's just soooo far down and far away from where we ended up, I was really quite amazed as to how high we had climbed and how much glacier we had covered, especially since I thought the second half of the trip was about a bazillion times easier.  So yeah, the physical strain was totally worth it and felt SO rewarding, I'm really quite proud of myself for accomplishing this.  I'm definitely looking forward to relaxing in the hot tub tonight at the hostel, and will have advil close at hand tomorrow during my ride up to Greymouth, haha.  I hope everyone is doing well!