We were at the tour office for 8.15am for our Franz Josef Glacier Hike. We've opted for the Full Day Hike at $155 (£80) each. Apparently, it's the fastest moving glacier in the world.

First off we had to get kitted out with rain pants, rain jacket, waterproof boots and socks, crampons (ice grips), gloves and a hat. So they provide all the necessary gear in the price which is good. Then we took the 10 minute bus journey to start our hike to the glacier. It was a short walk through the bush and out to a stream where we could then see the glacier. The glacier sits in a valley between two forested mountains that have lots and lots of waterfalls popping out.

It was a fairly long walk to the foot of the glacier, where we sat down and put our crampons on to start our hike on the glacier. It's an incredible sight to see. Different shades of blue with waves and waves of solid ice walls. We hiked along the top, then started walking between the crevasses. So we'd be walking between the cracks of huge plates of ice. They were a really tight squeeze at times. We had a group of about 10 and then a guide leading the way. It's not a place that anyone can just come along and hike up. You need all the right gear. The guide was constantly having to carve the ice with a pick axe to create a path for us. They do the same walk everyday as well, but it all freezes up so quickly.

We stopped for lunch at about 12.30pm. We just plonked ourselves on the ice and ate our sandwiches. We made them last night with the ciabatta bread and chicken, plus some ham we had. That was somewhere different to have lunch!

We carried on zigzagging up a few more waves of ice to the highest point of our hike and stopped to take photos down the glacier into the bottom of the valley. We'd walked pretty far up actually, but nowhere near the top of it, as it's really long. The glacier is an amazing landscape to see.

It started raining on the hike down, pretty heavy as well at points. Fortunately we had the waterproof clothes on. It seemed like a really long hike down actually. We got to slide through a little tunnel on the way though. Then we walked through a huge 20 metre deep crevasse! Again, the ice was different shades of blue, which looked amazing.

We had a fantastic day with really spectacular sights. There's not many places in the world that you can do a glacier hike either, so really glad we've been able to do it.

We got back and it was throwing it down still. We ran back to our hostel and was going to jump in the hot tub, until we found out it was outside! Jumped in the shower instead.

It's Mel's birthday today! Not a bad way to celebrate a birthday doing a glacier hike. So, we decided to eat out at the Monsoon Bar where we got a discount too. It was lovely in there because they had a huge open fire so it was red hot. Just what we needed to warm us up. It's really nice in there actually. The food was ok, nothing special. We had a good night though!