We had a bit of a lay in today for a couple of reasons; firstly we didn’t have to meet for our glacier hike until noon, and secondly, I had been up during the night being sick, possibly as a result of the night before.
At noon we went to the meeting spot and got bussed up the valley to the drop off point to begin our 3km walk to the beginning of the Glacier itself. Sally, our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and filled us in with useless nuggets of knowledge on the trip to the ‘terminal’(or the front of the glacier to the layman).
From afar the glacier did not look too spectacular, but, like Milford Sound, that’s because we had no context to put it into. Once we were level with the terminal itself the sheer size of it really became apparent.
Once we reached the ice we all strapped on our crampons and after stumbling around for a short while we managed to walk quite competently, apart from Skins who walked as incompetently as usual, but we’re confident he’ll learn soon.
The walk itself was a lot of fun and, surprisingly (considering we were walking on ice), really quite warm. We saw lots of crevasses and (insert other GCSE geography buzz word) in action and had the opportunity to go down some of the deeper crevasses into the heart of the glacier.
When we reached the top of the glacier we were given another crash course in glacial formation while eating our picnic before descending along the same path and heading back to the car. Fun though the walk was, at times it did feel a little like we were being spoon fed...the guide was going in front of us with a pick-axe carving out staircases as we went.
To finish off the day we’d booked to spend the evening in the hot pools complex, a selection of outdoor spa pools at 36, 38 and 40 degrees. This was a very relaxing way to finish off a fairly active day, ending in a bite to eat at the Landing Bar on the way back to the campervan.
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