Waking up and packing up this damn tent is becoming second nature to us. We jumped on the bus once again and headed on our way to the Franz Joseph ice glacier. Our first stop was at a place called Lake Matheson. It is a lake that contains something called tanin, which is the same stuff that is in tea that makes it dark. So the tanin makes the lake a very dark color so that the reflections from the trees mountains and even the clouds are perfect. We had an awesome time walking around this still lake, it was so peaceful. On the way to our next stop Kristen began to develope a migrane. She hadnt had one since high school and it was wierd because we had just talked about it a few nights ago. Unfortunately the migrane took over and put a huge damper on Kristens day. She got really sick and couldnt even leave the bus.
Our next stop was at a small town called Ross. I couldn't help but to think of my little Katie Ross!! Miss you hunny!! hehehe. There we learned how many years ago hundreds of people came to this small town in search of gold and fortune.
Once we got back on the bus before we knew it we were in Franz Joseph. I was totally psyched about doing a glacier hike, and we only had a few minutes to get into our hostel and over to the start of the walk. Kristen was feeling so sick that she was unable to go on the glacier walk with us...she ended up getting a room for the night and sleeping off the migrane all day long. We got over there and were given thick socks, heavy hiking boots, rain coats, and these things called talongs to help us on the ice. We all piled onto a bus and headed up to the mountain. We finally got there and had to walk about a mile down a path in the woods, and then another mile down a riverbed to the actual ice. While walking to the glacier we also saw many really pretty waterfalls. Once we got onto the ice we split up into smaller groups and had guides lead us around the glacier. Along the way we saw huge crevases, blue ice, and even went through some ice caves. We had an awesome time, but by the end the weight of the boots and the talongs were making our feet really tired, and our knees were starting to hurt from the impact of the ice going down the glacier. The walk back seemed even longer than the walk to the glacier, and Beth had to pee so she sped ahead so she didnt pee her pants!! I ended up talking to a really nice older woman from Northern Ireland. She was really sweet, we talked the entire way back. I love meeting new people on the trip, it seems hard on this trip because we get on and off the bus so often.
We got back to the hostel and had some dinner, it had been a really long day!! We watched the Harry Potter series on tv with a bunch of people that were staying in the hostel as well, and then headed to bed.
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