eC's Chillout Lounge

Still in search of the Ring, we climbed Franz Josef today, named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

We were picked up by the bus and collected our clamp ons, which looked like wearing teeth on our snow boots.

I liked the Māori name more - Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere or the tears of Hinehukatere.

Legend says Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Tawe, to climb with her. An avalanche swept Tawe from the peaks to his death. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears froze to form the glacier.

Awww... I love romantic tragedies. No, I'm not a sadist.



Before reaching our destination, we had to walk through the rainforest and cross rivers.

A good 4km walk in fact.



What makes this place unique is because the glacier is amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest.



You must be wondering like me why the ice is blue.

Think of the ice layer as a filter. If it is only a centimeter thick, all the light makes it through, but if it is a meter thick, mostly blue light makes it through.

Fascinating huh?



I did something brave by wearing board shorts to climb the huge ice structure. Strong right? I thought I will turn blue and blend into the surroundings.



It was quite tiring actually to climb the glacier. The slopes were really steep, and the pathway very narrow.



Our guide was very experienced and was in constant communication with her colleagues to get the latest updates of the glacier situations.

Our route was changed many times for safety issues. Ropes were set up for us to hang on too.



After all those climbing, I had a sumptuous lunch of mussels. Beautiful.



Not satisfied seeing just one glacier, we drove down to see Fox Glacier as well.

Make a guess at the weather?

There was a small tour group there, so we just mixed into them and got a free lesson on the glacier named after one of their PMs, Sir William Fox.



Dinner menu: Butter Chicken.

We went to the supermarket, which was rather pathetic by the way to buy groceries to cook dinner.

Simple and nice.