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8/5 - We left the poo pub in the morning and headed off to Franz Josef, home of the Franz Josef glacier. On the way we stopped in a place called the Bushmans centre, which was a little museum of sorts, explaining about how locals used to make a living off the land, catching deer by jumping out of helicopters onto their backs, and other things like that! mostly possum killing, there was possum fur all over the place! there was also a little cafe here where we could have breakfast (possun pies were on the menu). We then went on to Franz Josef. I had signed myself up to do another skydive here but the weather was not permitting on the day we arrived. so that eve we just chilled for a bit in the bar on site, which was a really nice little bar which sold really nice meals!!
9/5 - Today we all had an early start so we could go on a full day glacier hike!! the day started with the guides kitting us out with our hiking gear, then we had a short bus ride down to the glacier. The walk started with about an hour or so trekking through some forest and over the river until we rached the base of the glacier. When we got to the base we attched our crampons and set off up the glacier. It was such a cool experience, and a really weird feeling, going through these trees and rocks to then climb a big wall of ice! The guides pretty much make the route up as they go, because they use these big axes to make steps and pathways wherever they want on the the glacier. As the day went on the sun started to come out, making it really warm under all those fleeces and waterproofs! The guides led us through really tight ice crevices and up steep walls creating steps out of nothing as they went. A couple of times we got to crawl through these sort of ice cave which got really tight (and cold) at times! We got to stop for lunch at the highest point we walked to, before heading back down a different route. It was quite hard work, and at one point someone in our group fell and ended up cutting someone elses leg open with their crampon, luckily it wasn't serious tho :) and at one point i fell down a hole, which was just hilarious!! I wasn't watching where I was going and I just put one of my legs down this really deep pool of water and fell over :p We eventually made it back down, after about 8 hours of walking, and made our way back into town.
10/5 - I got up really early this morning, as I was meant to be on a bus at 6:15 to do a skydive!!! it was about 25 mins ride to the drop zone, so I was still half asleep and the sun wasn't even up when we arrived. We could actually still see loads of stars as we were getting ready! By the time I was kitted out and ready to go, the sun had come up, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! We had an amazing 20 min scenic flight over the Fox glacier and mount cook, which was covered in snow. And I managed to take a few photos of the view as we were allowed to jump with our cameras! So, we got to 12,000 ft and I was ready to jump! The views as I was freefalling were stunning, and I think i could enjoy them a bit more as i was a bit less nervous. after the jump we were driven out to join the rest of our bus at lake mathison. It was a strange feeling, having already done a skydive by 9:30 in the morning!! From the lake we then headed to lake wanaka!
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