Hash-Packing the World

Just after yesterday's post, we stopped at Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks. Science can't fully explain how the rocks were formed, but they are very distinctive. Pancake is a great description.

After that the bus pulled into Greymouth for a brief stop at a supermarket. Our next quick stop was in the town of Hokitika, which was once New Zealand's largest town because of the gold. Now, it's a place to buy beautiful greenstone, also called New Zealand jade.

We arrived in Franz Josef after a very long drive but without incident, and the rest of the evening was me with a cold beer and a great book.

Four days ago, very heavy rains flooded the river and washed out the town's bridge. Our group was the first to make it back into the town, for which I am very thankful. Because today has been amazing.

We took a short helicopter lift right onto the glacier, then had a slow but pleasant walk on the ice. Slow because the guides were working on the path while we went, clearing existing steps in the ice and making some new footholds along the way. The rains changed the glacier's landscape quite dramatically, opening huge crevasses and even changing the direction of the river flowing under the ice. Franz Josef Glacier is one of a very few in the world that are located in temperate rainforest areas. They get more rain here than in the Amazon!

By the way, they had cold weather gear for everyone, including waterproof overpants and jacket, boots, and sheep wool socks, mittens, and hat, although I wore my llama wool hat from Chile instead. We also wore crampons on our boots to make the trek a walk instead of a slide. 😉

After the trek and helicopter lift back, I was straight in the hot pools at the same business. They only had three that weren't that hot--36, 38, and 40°C. But when it began to sprinkle, I got out of the 40° one to stand in the cold rain. Once I got goosebumps, I was right back in the pool, seemingly much hotter. Nice.

All of that brings me to about 15:00 today. I usually stop at noon, but I wanted to get today all in one post. It was weird being so close to helicopters again, hearing them flying over the town, back and forth. The last time I heard them was in Afghanistan, and the sound brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad. But it was still a good day despite the bad memories.

So long [for now] and thanks for all the ICE. ✌️

P.S.: While on the glacier, we saw several small ice calvings, when the ice at the edge falls off, and we heard a couple of very large ones. The big ones were deep, low rumbles growing in volumes until they crashed into silence. It was unnerving.Read more