Rain it did.  We woke up to pitter patter in the morning and we didn’t see sun for the next 24 hours.  We weren’t happy about the precipitation but Franz Josef Glacier Guides gave us socks, boots, pants, hat, gloves, raincoat, and we were off – off on a 1.5 hour steep difficult hike.  We were divided into three groups for fast athletic people, medium pace and slow.  Hendrik and I chose to go into the slow group but soon realized that we were the fastest group.  Since we were the last group to head out we had to cover the same ground as the rest of the groups in the same amount of time, so I pretty much had to jog to keep up with my short legs.  We hiked trough the woods all the while the rain pelted down.  At one point the terrain was so steep there were ropes tied to the trees so there was something we could grab on to.  The rain had made it a muddy slide so it was one thing going down but I feared going back up the rest of the day.  I was exhausted after the hike, and we had just made it to the base of the glacier.  I wish they would have forewarned us about the hike because I had no idea it was going to be so tough.

I was pretending to enjoy the hike

There we put on spikes called crampons onto our shoes and we were off hiking up the glacier.  The first part of the glacier wasn’t too nice since the ice is mixed with lots of mud and rocks so it hardly looks like a glacier.  The higher we hiked the prettier it got, even in the rain.  Some of the ice was so incredibly blue that I’ve never seen ice like that in real life only in pictures.  In some parts, it was pretty magnificent and stunning but I’m still not sure the effort was worth it.  I would definitely splurge on a helicopter if I had to do it again.  Being cold and wet while hiking strenuously was not my idea of a good time. They also offered a ½ day tour which is useless because you don’t even get to the pretty part of the glacier but just stay on the muddy part, and a ¾ day which we wanted to do but it wasn’t being offered this day.

We did not stop for lunch and had to eat while hiking.  Even though it was raining, I would have appreciated a break.  Our guide was very nice and cheery, and I had no idea how she managed to do this every single day.  She not only had to hike the route every day but carve paths out for us in the ice with a giant pick.  She didn’t even mind the rain and said that it rains two out of every three days so statistically we had a good chance of rain.  The guide found nooks and crevices for us to take pictures in which were extremely claustrophobic but also surreal, to be completely surrounded by huge walls of ice.  The whole time Hendrik was worried about his camera since he had a new EOS camera and it wasn’t waterproof.  We did our best to keep it covered, but there was only so much we could do in the pouring rain especially since we wanted to take pictures.  I told him that it survived acid rain so it should survive regular rain.

Posing with the pick

There were a few scary points along the way.  Occasionally there were holes in the ice and if you would fall in there would be no help.  It would be almost impossible to rescue someone because of the flowing water and shifting ice.  We saw how quickly something can disappear when the other guide who was being trained accidentally dropped his pick, which is really huge, into one of those holes.  It vanished instantly though he poked and scoped the hole for a while with no success.  This is why it was necessary to go with a guide because if you are not familiar with the glacier and its patterns it is very dangerous.  On the way back Hendrik and I were a bit behind the group, only about 20 paces, but since we didn’t know the path the group had taken we didn’t know how to catch up because to us there did not seem like there was a path.  I slipped and fell down a short wall.  At least there weren’t any holes at the bottom, and I wasn’t hurt, but it was just scary to feel so out of the element.  Our guide immediately came and helped us to the rest of the group, and I stayed at the front for the rest of the time.

Us in a crevice

That night, it was wonderful that our campsite had a spa since I was in pain.  Spas seemed to be really popular in New Zealand and almost every single campsite had a spa.  I debated which visit to the glacier I had enjoyed more and couldn’t decide but what I did know is that I was in less pain after tequila night.

View from the glacier

I was thrilled when I woke up this morning and saw that the sun was shining. We were late coming to the beach since the gate of the campsite was locked and we had to go around and were worried we might miss the tour. When we arrived to the parking lot surrounded by pyramid shaped tank traps or Dragon’s teeth there were two 4wd cars there. The beach was fortified against a possible attack by Imperial Japanese forces during WWII and the pyramids are what’s left of it. I was expecting a bus and more people but we were the only ones there. The driver of one of the cars motioned for us and he told us we were the only tour participants. We assumed he just picked us up in his own private car. Unlike our Fraser island tour guide, this one seemed pretty uninformed and just drove us to the locations without too much explanation.

First we did a bit of sandboarding which is like sledding but on sand dunes. We did that in two locations. It was scary at first but then became fun. The really bad part was walking back up because it was so steep and we were out of shape. So we didn’t sandboard for very long because we got too tired.

Sandboarding

Stockton Beach is less than 3.5 km from a military base and we saw and heard many military airplanes fly over us as we rode along the beach. The next stop was Tin City, an actual town in the dunes with a handful of inhabitants. It was first built to store provisions for shipwrecked sailors because the beach was a popular place to become shipwrecked with almost 100 wrecks between Newcastle and Port Stephens. It was also where Mad Max with Mel Gibson was filmed and I feel like I have to see the movie now. It was interesting to see how some people chose to live, I definitely wouldn’t. The last thing to see on the trip is the wreck of the MV Sygna, a Norwegian bulk carrier, which we stopped at and observed.  I thought Stockton Beach was very unique and really enjoyed the visit.

Tin city

Since it was only midday we drove to Newcastle and had a look around the town. There was a nice beach, but we didn’t have time to go swimming, and a lookout over the beach. The centre was cute and there was a lookout over the central train station so we climbed the tower and had a panoramic view of Newcastle. It was a nice town to have some lunch in and walk around but there was not much else to do or see.

That evening we decided to stay in Lake Macquarie, for no particular reason other than we had liked Port Macquarie, so we figured Lake Macquarie was nice too. It wasn’t particularly nice and we could tell we were getting to a more populated area since people did not seem as friendly and the bbq’s weren’t free anymore. The lake wasn’t a swimming lake and may have been nice if we had a boat but we weren’t too impressed.