Chillin' on a Glacier in New Zealand.

For our Fall mid-semester break, I had the opportunity to go to New Zealand for nine days and it was a fantastic experience!!  There was a group of 27 of us and we flew in to Christchurch and spent the night because it was much cheaper than flying into anywhere else.  The next morning we drove about eight hours to Franz Josef on a bus; the ride was kind of long, but none of us wanted to take the time to sleep because of the amazing scenery outside of the window.

I never imagined that it was possible for a place to have as many unbelievable sights as New Zealand does.  There are not only mountains and rivers everywhere but every time you turn your head a beautiful waterfall or lake is off in the distance.  I find it incredibly hard to describe what it felt like to be in a place that seemed magical.  I was in awe at everything around me.  My friends and I kept looking out the window and saying "Wow!" or "How unbelievable is this?"  We tried to soak up as much of it as we could because there is a very good chance we will never see anything as spectacular as this country ever again.

Once we arrived in Franz Josef, which by the way is about a 3x5 block town, we checked into the hostel and decided to walk around.  It is completely possible to walk around the whole place in 15 minutes tops.  Even though it was small, we loved the place.  There were two main restaurants and a cafe which we all ate at because we didn't really have any other options.  There was also one bar that was above one of the restaurants; we had a blast at the bar and had a great time getting to know the bartender.  He loved the fact that we came both nights so he would give us "challenges" for a few free drinks such as: run around the pool table twice, climb the pole in the bar, and take a straw full of chili sauce.  I think we made him laugh more than he cared about the money for the drinks, so we obviously thought he was a cool guy.

The only day we had in Franz Josef was spent climbing the glacier.  It was one of those experiences I will never forget due to the weather conditions, the magnitude and beauty of the piece of ice we were on, and the ability of all of us to overcome the fact that we were cold and miserable by acting like five year-olds.

The surroundings of the glacier were huge mountains and because the weather was horrible, there was fog everywhere; it looked like we were in the movie King Kong.  While we were climbing up, it rained about 85% of the time and the equipment we had on did not happen to be waterproof.  When we stopped once, out of the many, to fill in the trail that "dropped out"(which we took to mean that the crevice that was there now became big enough for us to fall into) I happened to ask our guide if we were about halfway.  Her response was "If I say yes will that make everyone feel better?"  I think the combination of being entirely soaked and hanging out on top of one of the world's biggest ice cubes started to make us a little loopy.  Many of us began singing songs, telling jokes, taking funny pictures, and pretending, with all our might, that we were on the beach; we wanted to do anything to keep our minds off the shaking and shivering.

Despite the fact that the conditions were miserable, the climb was an experience I'm so glad I did not miss.  I was very nervous at the beginning because, everyone that knows me well, knows that I fall ALL the time on ice.  I was tempted to bring a sled and just slide down on our way back; it was a great idea until we realized there were big holes we could fall into.

Even though we were only in Franz Josef for one day, the glacier was 100% worth the trip.  It is mind-blowing to see what the earth is capable of creating.  I had so much fun and couldn't wait for Queenstown.