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The day we got to franz josef, amy climbed 15 metre ice wall. this was proper hard to do and i was the only lass to do it so i had to beat all the lads. we got geared up in harnests and snow boots and gloves and pick axes, then headed into this big room that had ice and snow everywhere. it had about 8 big climbing walls and had big ice obstacles going up them aswell. i set off climbing this massive wall and at first i was doing really well. i had to get one pick axe and hit it in the ice then hit my other pick axe in the ice then with one of my boots i had to kick it in the wall as high as possible then pull my sen up and kick my other boot in the ice so i could stand up. i got to about 3/4s of the way up the wall and i started to get really tired, as im only little and im suprised i lasted that long. anyway some of the lads kept encouraging me to go on, so i did. i managed to get all the way to the top, it was definielty worth all the hard work it was getting up there - plus one of the lads didnt even make it to the top. so after that i absailled back down the wall and had alittle rest. then i found some more energy and wanted to climb it again, so i did. but the instructor made it abit more hard for me as i was starting to beat some of the lads. they made me climb up through an ice tunnel then up the rest of the wall. i started off really fast. i got through the tunnel no problem, but then i was too tired when i got to climbing the rest of the wall. even with all the encouragement from everyone i could even lift my pick axe up over my head. but i was told that i was so close to the top, two more feet and i would have done it.
During the time in which Amy did the ice wall, laura and emma did nothing. they descided to do some washing and then go in the hot tub. after putting on there swimsuits and walkin in just our towels we arrived at the hot tub to find alot of old men so we quickly turned around. that night we had a meal and a few drinks with some new people - which were english and we all got forced to dance.
the next day my arms was aching quite alot, so that taught me to not push my sen when it comes to climbing an ice wall.
but today we was having an helicoptor ride to the glacier which all of us was excited to do and none of us had been in a helicoptor before. the helicoptor was going to drop us off half way on the glacier and we would have a 2 hour hike on all the ice (excitement - i know). i was pretty nervous about this helicoptor tho, as im the worst person at flying, and im pretty sure laura, emma and kim was all bobbing themselves when it was our turn to get in the chopper. emma, kim and laura was in the back seats but amy got the special seat of sitting in the front. as we set off, it was amazing, all the scary feelings went away and i couldnt believe i was flying over a massive glacier in a helicoptor. (laura felt sick the whole time and descided she was not a fan of helicoptors)the scenrey was absolutely fantastic, you could see for miles, all the mountains surrounded us and could see the whole glacier. we did abit of a scenic flight before landing and got to see beatiful waterfalls and a cave that happened to be there. it was absolutely mint. after we landed we put the ice grips on our boots (crampons) then headed of hiking all the ice hills around us.
im sure mrs macritchie will be interested to know how amazing the scenery was. i was walking so slow as i couldnt stop looking all around me to find mountains and a snow all aorund us. it was a very surreal experience and probably the best part of new zealand so far. we hiked for a long time, we headed in the direction of a waterfall named victoria falls but it got too dangerous to get much closer to it so we changed directions. we also ended up water through a like a little ice tunnel and in this the ice was so blue and nice compared to some on the top which looked like something i would find in my cud-i-sac after a snow day in sheffield. some just looked like mucky snow but when you saw the blueness it was magnificiant. the further we walked the more dangerous the track got and at one point we was walking a very small bit of ice with atleast a 30foot drop just next to us, and ice isnt the easist thing to walk on. after the hike, we got bk in the helicoptor and headed bk franz josef. u can see hoe beautiful the glacier was on the photos but u really do have to see it in person to be captured in its beauty.
the chopper ride bk wasnt very nice, i thought the pilot was being a clever d*** and we free falled for what seemed a year of my life,(laura prefered this ride to the one on the way and felt like she was on a rollacoster) i had to shut my eyes for some of it cos it got alit terrifiying. but after the pilot scared us my landed safely and got a sandwich then headed on the coach to queenstown.
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