Gorgeous Glaciers

Today has been amazing. We got up at 8am and got dressed to go up the glacier. We were told to wear 2 - 4 warm layers. I only had one long sleeved tshirt as I packed for summer.

We checked in for the heli hike at 9am and completed a medical questionnaire and got weighed. Then we got completely kitted out in a waterproof coat, waterproof trousers, thick socks, an optional hat, massive waterproof boots and a waterproof bag. Once everyone was ready we had a five minute walk through the rainforest to a helicopter that tool us to the top of the glacier. The view from the chopper was amazing. It was a really short ride, about 4 minutes and as it flew over the glacier I was wondering where it was going to land as there was no proper heli pad in sight. It ended up just landing on a little square of ice that had been cleared by a dude with an ice pick.

Once we landed we jumped out the helicopter and put on crampons, which are like spikes for your boots and we were given a pole. Then off we went. We were being lead by a guy called Scottie who had a pick axe and was clearing the path as we went. The glacier changes everyday so the path varies slightly and has to be cleared. It moves up to 8 metres a day. We were hiking over the ice for 3 hours, on a circular route, squeezing through tiny crevices and over large flat surfaces.  At one point we had to place one foot behind the other and shuffle as there wasn't room for two feet next to each other and it was too hard to step one foot over the other. Both Lauren and I, as well as Sophie, one of the girls from Leeds (who is actually from Liverpool) got stuck at one point and had to be pulled out. Scottie pulled Lauren out, who pulled me out, and I pulled Sophie out. We also had to crawl through a small hole at one point.

Eventually we returned to the heli pad, wet but surprisingly not cold. It wasn't cold at all really up on the glacier. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We had a good amount of layers on and the hiking kept us warm. We then all piled into the helicopters for the short return journey. Again the views were just amazing.

The hike was just phenomenal. It was so fun and the scenery was just incredible. It was expensive but so worth it. We finished at around 2pm and had an hour to kill before getting a 5 hour bus journey to Wanaka. We had a couple of photo stops along the way including Thunder Creek Falls and a look out over lake Wanaka.

We arrived at Wanaka at 9pm and all the shops were shut and we couldn't be bothered to cook so we got fish and chips from a takeaway shop and took them back to the hostel to eat before going to bed.