From Fire to ICE

Today we hiked up the Franz Joseph glacier- I say hiked when it was more of a climb. It was totally amazing and gorgeous and strange to think that this time last year I was studying it from a text book. It was hard work especially as we were in the advanced group and we were the first group of the day so we had to hack out our steps with an axe before we continued. Its astounding how ice can be both so powerful and beautiful- I might even say that this was better than the skydive?! We saw ice caves, huge crevasses and bottomless pools it was excellent weather the sun shined and we generally just had fun trying not to fall over our crampons (which i did frequently) or fall down pot holes ( a few near misses) . Great day but i'm truly knackered now..time to go warm my bones in the jacuzzi ..mmmmm