There are times like when you’re on the bus from Barrytown to Franz Josef when you don’t mind the rain, but there are times when the rain is a royal pain in the ass. This was one of them. Still positively jetlagged I woke up at 7, had my coffee and biscuits breakfast, and cursed the rain. The glacier walk was going to be wet.

An hour later the English one and I where at the Franz Josef Glacier Guides office, waiting for the assistants to hand us our gear for the highly anticipated walk. Here they appreciate that not everyone goes around carrying waterproof vests and mountain gear, so they supply all the necessary equipment to go on the glacier. This includes a Gore-Tex rain jacket, crampons to be able to walk on ice, socks, waterproof overtrousers, gloves and a hat.

After wearing the waterproof gear at the office, we left for a short bus ride to the beginning of the glacier which is about 2.9km away from the actual glacier. The walk towards the ice takes about ¾ hour and even though the walk is pleasant the anticipation to get to the glacier had all my attention. Once we arrived at the glacier we went up a ladder and started walking slowly on the ice, until Cliff our guide thought us how to fit on the crampons. This is much easier than it looks; you just step inside the metal spikes, clip the edges to your boots, and tie them with straps.

At this stage we were divided into 3 groups depending on the conceived level of confidence, so each person decides his own level of comfort. Always a big fan of the golden mean I went for the middle group but ended up in the first group because of lack of volunteers. The group number determines who goes first, second and third. The idea is that the latter groups have smoother terrain because it has already been battered by the previous groups. While it wasn’t difficult to be in the first group it isn’t the best option to take photos because we were always pacing faster than the rest.

To walk on the glacier you don’t need any special skills just walking normally will do. Although ice is usually very slippery to walk on, the crampons make it dead easy. The only thing you have to do is walk normally and keep your feet apart. If you don’t the protruding edges of the crampons lock together and tie your feet leading to an inevitable fall. You might ask yourself why am I saying all this. Probably some of you already guessed; during one of the short lunch breaks I got distracted and pressed my feet together falling heavily on my knees. Obviously everybody started laughing including Sheamus, who was brushing his teeth in one of the streams nearby. I served as a perfect demonstration of what happens when a naughty boy disobeys his guide.

The rain kept on pouring for most of the time and we were testing our gear thoroughly even if I’m sure this is not the first time it went through this. The west coast of New Zealand is the wettest part of the country, in fact once they had 18.4 meters of rain in a year. My only worry was that the daypack wasn’t waterproof and it had all the camera equipment in it. I had to improvise a waterproof bag with my spare poncho by wrapping everything inside the hood. My wallet was in the bottom of the bag where all the water gathered so for yet another time it got soaked. Unlike the Malaysian and Ecuadorian currencies the NZ dollars have a plastic coating so it was only a matter of wiping off the water to dry them. For a brief moment in the afternoon the rain stopped and the sun shone for about 5 minutes. Those 5 minutes where the most beautiful minutes of the day. The difference the sun makes to the whole place is incredible. If you have time to spare I’d recommend waiting an extra day or two for the weather to clear up.

The ice on the glacier is unique - I’ve never seen anything similar in my life. It is a like being in a sculptured freezer everywhere around you is ice with all the different formations and shapes. Sometimes when you’re walking up all you can see is the ice because there’s so much of it that the rest of the place isn’t visible. The glacier is very different from being on a snowy mountain because you can see that everything underneath is made of solid ice and is not merely covered with snow. On the upper part of the glacier we passed through some very narrow crevices which are great fun to pass through and gorgeous to look at. The ice has got a distinctive blue tinge here (Why does glacier ice look blue?). As I was passing through these tight, wet, slippery passages I had a strong feeling of deja-vu dating back to 26 years ago.

An interesting thing about the glacier walk is that the guides create a new path in each different tour. The first guide carves out the first steps then the other guides than continue his work to make it easier for the people in their groups. Since it was raining the whole way, Cliff decided to speed the route and follow a pre-carved path. This didn’t prevent him from hitting the ice with his new axe (he was too happy with). This is a physically demanding job and it’s no wonder all the guides are lean and well built. Sometimes we found some ice structures that needed to be removed. You could see the perverse pleasure on Cliff’s face as he charged and bashed at the substantial structures of ice. He reminded me so much of a good friend of mine who’s heaving with appetite for destruction. Ska!

Another curious thing is that the guides tend to wear shorts. I can’t imagine myself walking on a glacier wearing shorts especially when I remember when I fell knee deep in a pool of freezing water because I mistook it for solid ground. The gear really proved itself here because I didn’t get wet at all.

The trip finished at around 3 but usually the full day tour takes another hour. We walked faster and avoided frequent stops to arrive earlier. There was a collective sigh of relief when we boarded the bus, and the hot chocolate they gave us at the guide’s centre was a godsend.

Back at the Rainforest Retreat, I had a hot shower and a short nap. In the evening then I had a pizza and some beers at the hostel restaurant while chatting with the Belgian girl.

View the complete Franz Josef Gallery here

Coming next: Franz Josef to Queenstown