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"Glacier Hiking is a must for the ardent adventurer" - Thats what the leaflet said, so we decided this was a must for us.
Fully equipped in our Gortex Jackets, NZ woolen socks and gloves, boots and ice crampons. We looked the part. During the introductory talk our guide asked if anyone had climbed a glacier. Aidan stuck his hand up and said he had. When she asked where he realised he hadn't so made it all up. He dug such a huge hole and said we all went climbing yesterday on the Fox Glacier.
Continuing on she asked if anyone had any questions. Aidan being a geographer couldn't resist. They came flowing out. We were now glacier experts.
We had to split into groups, we could choose from Group 1 "Bulletproof group" to Group 4 "Daystroll group". Suprise, suprise we ended up in Group 1. Our leader was Roar, a Danish guy who was determined to pus us through our paces. He said the other groups would go around dangers, we would find our way through them. He aslo told us his dislike for German tourists.
The initial climb onto the ice was ok, after that things got a little worse. Roar was determined to find us some danger. We had to crawl though little ice tunnels, squeeze through crevasses and jump across big drops. At one point he started to dig a hole only a mouse could get through. Then he got stuck and Nicky and Clouter had to rescue him out of his hole.
Ever so often we heard what sounded like thunder. This was in fact huge hunks of ice falling. Scary!
Lunchtime came and was a relief to sit down. Roar didn't give us long though and we were soon hiking again. We met many dead ends. The ice changes shape every day and new tracks had to be cut.
Katie.
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