What an amazing experience

Today has just been amazing! We went on a tour to explore the Tasman glacier, New Zealand's biggest glacier. We woke up early because we needed to be at the meeting point for 9 and we didn't want to be late. We had worried it wasn't going ahead because you need at least 4 people for the trip to run but luckily a group of Chinese people had booked on so we were partnered with them. We arrived and were fitted with waist harnesses which initially we thought would mean we are roped together to but I think they were a safety precaution in case anyone fell down a crevasse. The group of Chinese people barely spoke English, most none at all and one was slightly better than the rest. We did feel sorry for our guide Ant when trying to give a safety briefing of how we get on and off the helicopter. After the demo we headed to Mt. Cook airport which is only for small planes and helicopters. We did have a half an hour wait but soon we were off in our own helicopter with just our guide, the pilot and the owner of the company. We touched down on the ice and once the other helicopter dropped the rest of the group off we all crouched down holding our bags getting almost blown backwards as it took off again. Suddenly we are signalled to stand up and there we are on the ice of a glacier! The surrounding mountains provided the most amazing backdrop. We were fitted with crampons which are so awesome to walk in, even with sheer slippery ice you can stamp your foot in and still step up. We also had a pole for balance so that our feet and pole always formed a triangle. In a single file line we followed Ant around the maze of cravesses, holes and frozen over pockets of water looking for ice caves. The first one we came to he had to anchor a rope into the ice so we could use it to climb down one by one. He was so knowledgeable about the glacier and it's features, it was a shame only we understood what he was telling us. Every question we asked he had an answer for which we were very impressed by. At one point when I was at the back of the line I came down into a small dip and my foot went straight through the ice and I fell pretty much flat on my face whacking my shin. I felt super embarrassed and Ant didn't seem too happy that it happened and tried to remind everyone to follow his exact footsteps so the person at the back is walking where he did and where it's safe. I think my shin will have a mighty bruise in a few days. We had a hard descent into one cave where we climbed down on rubble which often slipped and moved. There's lots of debris which is trapped in the ice, apparently from a former mountain, which is deposited around the glacier as the ice melts and exposes it. Amazingly tiny rocks in the surface heat up in the sun and melt the ice below, as they do so they start to spin and eventually it'll form an ice cave which I think is pretty incredible. At the bottom of the rubble we found the most beautiful cave, that led through into a cravesse which we were able to walk through. I've never seen ice so blue before. I had a second near miss where my phone fell out my pocket down the ice but luckily Nick was drinking glacier water in the stream below so he managed to catch it. It was a scary moment and I could just see it flying off down and hole lost forever. On that note 74 people are missing on this glacier alone which is harrowing. Our guide actually found the body of a climber from the 70s who had been frozen in the ice and only last year was exposed. His two climber partners are still missing. Being there you could see how easily it could be to fall so far down that no one could find you. We learnt that all but two glaciers in the whole world are melting at alarming rates to the point where we may be the last generation to be able to see them. This one alone retracts around 450m a year leaving a huge pile of rubble at the base between the remaining ice and glacier lake where most of the water collects. It's retracted so much that Lake Pukaki is no longer it's glacier lake but instead it's miles from there and now only small rivers now connect the two. We spent time exploring more tunnels and caves and even headed off in a small group with our Ant to check out a shadow in the distance while the remainder of the group wanted to rest with the bags. It was t a cave as Ant hoped but a huge ice overhang which was rather impressive. After 3 and a half hours exploring we headed back in the helicopter. Once we debriefed and did our thank yous we headed to our campervan and went to the campsite near Mt. Cook village to spent the night. We did a short hour return walk to Kea Point which overlooks another glacier lake as well as Mt. Cook and Mt. Sefton. It's been an incredible day and I'm so glad we chose to do this trip.Read more