Ice Walking on Franz Josef Glacier.

Back on the activity trail, this time it was to do some glacier walking! The sky was bright blue and the ice was sparkling white under the sunshine. Kitted out in waterproof jacket and trousers, boots, spikes, sunglasses and mittens - we were ready to get up on the ice! Up over rock, over melted streams running down the glacier, over slush and digging our spikes in over the ice on the make-shift dug out steps up the glacier we went for several hours. It was fun slipping and sliding through the crevices and seeing the strange blue ice in the deeper cracks and crevices. We felt like proper explorers...commercially guided explorers, but explorers never-the-less! Franz Josef was the site of another Lord of the Rings filming location from the third film; "the lighting of the beacons" and so sat on the ice, in the sun appreciating that and the view with a nice cheese sandwich and a Mandarin! Later when I was back down the glacier and tucking into hot free soup (again) I wished I'd worn a hat more, my hair parting was burnt to a crisp!