15th February Day 5 in New Zealand and I’m having a lovely time so far. On Sunday evening, my cousin Jenni and I started our road trip. Jenni worked all day so unfortunately we drove through ‘Arthur’s Pass’ in the dark. However, the moon was bright so I could see the silhouettes of the mountains which looked beautiful, even in the dark! We arrived at Jen’s friend’s ‘batch’ (holiday home) on Lake Brunner and got a few hours sleep before an early start to get to Franz Joseph. Franz Joseph village is a small touristy place at the foot of ‘Franz Joseph Glacier’. The glacier is a huge mass of ice that has formed and slid down between two alps (as far as I can make out). We wanted to book the glacier walk that day but unfortunately it was fully booked so we organised to go the following day and booked into backpacker’s accommodation. Jenni’s friend, Pip, who lives there, took us to the glow worm tunnel instead, which was great. We walked through a small stone tunnel, which used to be a gold mine tunnel, in the pitch black and, as we stomped along through a foot of cold water, one by one little twinkly lights started to appear just above our heads. It was brilliant! They made the ceiling look like the sky at night and when we shone the torch on them they were these little worm-things surrounded by dangly goo that caught little bugs for them to eat. Very strange! Lovely with the lights off though! That evening we had a lovely meal out (New Zealand lamb is so delicious) and had an early night in anticipation of an all day trek on the glacier. The following day, after a day of glorious sunshine, we awoke to pouring rain. Great! Pip told us it would make no difference to our glacier walk and I naively believed her! After quite a walk in the pouring rain with our group and tour guide, we arrived at the foot of the glacier. I stood in front of this monstrous icy mass – like an ant in front of a huge baked Alaska – and eyed the steep steps cut practically vertically into the ice. My waterproof coat and trousers were already soaking through to the skin as I was informed the steps would ‘only’ take around an hour and a half to climb and after that it would level off a bit. ‘Great’ I thought, my heart sinking lower and lower. At least with health and safety regulations being so strict now it should be reasonably safe and easy to climb, I thought. How wrong could I be?! As amazing as this icy lump was, climbing it was definitely not fun. I was told I would sweat climbing it so I only wore a tshirt and shorts under my waterproofs, and I was cold the whole time. The low point was around midday. We’d climbed the steps but there was no flat area at the top. The whole area was made of peaks of ice and crevasses. We had to cross places where I knew if I slipped to the side I’d be lost forever or immersed into icy water, and we frequently had to ‘ice climb’, which was like rock climbing but without the use of our hands - utterly relying on balance and the talons attached to our boots. Being scarred of even climbing the step ladder into my attic meant this was not fun! And with the pouring rain, numb fingers and toes, and the constant fear of what obstacle we might stumble upon next, I was praying it would be over quickly! Then, on a climb up and out of a narrow crack between two lumps of ice, the girl in front of me tried to use her hands and slid to the side and then over my head, toppling into Jenni! Amazingly no one was hurt but I was then next in line to climb this wall and I felt like crying! I managed it with a forced smile though! To add to all this, a couple of times we heard a loud rumble, like thunder, which were told was the ice moving. I was terrified! We stopped for around 10 minutes to eat a sandwich for lunch, which I somehow managed to eat with my frozen sausage fingers. After that, following a ropey start where Pip fell from a climb down a ledge (she was unharmed other than a swollen foot!) – the afternoon miraculously started to pick up. We seemed to start moving a bit quicker over less rugged ice and when we started to turn back and head the way we came my spirits soared that we were heading back. The rain stopped as well and I actually started to enjoy it! At the end of the hike our guide told us it had been particularly difficult that day because the rain had washed away the ‘crust’ on the ice that makes it easy to grip. He’d only ever had one other person fall in his 4 months working on the glacier, so we’d bumped it up to three in one day! It was certainly an experience but one (as you can probably tell) that I wouldn’t do again. Mind you, I’m sure it is far more enjoyable in the sun and I did feel a sense of achievement once I’d had a warm shower and was reflecting on the experience with Jen on our drive back to Lake Brunner. I had a lovely lie-in today and got up to see the beautiful views of the lake and mountains from our batch. We’ve had a lazy day today and will leave Brunner tomorrow and make our way to Lake Rotoiti, to another batch, owned by Jen’s boyfriend’s family. Free accommodation. Great! Bye for now. Miss you all xxxx