Ice queen

Good evening!

Last night it turned out that the hostel had messed up the bookings slightly and tried to put 7 people into a 6 bed dorm – this meant that I ended up with my own room for the first time in 5 weeks!! I hadn't thought I'd minded the lack of privacy thus far, but goodness me last night was lovely. No worrying about whether I could turn the light on or off, or worrying about getting changed; and no-one putting the heater on so the room was tropical (I do like a cold bedroom, less night sweat paranoia!) I even pinched a duvet from the bottom bunk for extra warmth; it was beautiful. I was one cosy bug!

This morning I grudgingly left my cocoon of quilts for the 8.15am planned full day hike on Franz Josef – unfrotunately it became apparent, as I waited in the queue to check in, that the hike had been cancelled because of the weather... I was a bit / rather / very annoyed at this because after all, the only reason I was even IN Franz was to hike on a glacier and I had been deprived of my adventure! Visions of a hideously tedious day in a tiny village swam before my eyes.... however, I managed to shake these off and return to a sense of unbridled optimism by telling myself that the best trips don't go perfectly to plan, the best trips are the ones that are unplanned!

Thus HURRRRRRRRGH'ed up, I strode along to the iSite to find out what else there is to do in FJ when your trip has been cancelled. This is clearly a common occurrence and the iSite was a well-practised operation full of suggestions. I decided to “go and have a nice cup of tea or coffee” as the whiteboard suggested, and then walk to the foot of the glacier and at least LOOK at it. (You're not allowed to go on the ice without a guide, and you'd have to be pretty stupid to, what with all the dire warnings of unlucky tourists squished by falling blocks of ice larger than campervans...)

I asked where the best coffee was, was informed of Full of Beans Café, went there, and while awaiting my cappuccino got talking to an Australian girl called Jackie and her husband Tim …. you know how this is going to go don't you? I seem to find the nicest people in any place and then “stick to them like napalm” as Dad said!

And indeed I spent the whole day with this lovely couple. Jackie is a high school teacher and Tim was too, before he went back to university to study mechanical engineering. They are over here on a 2 week winter break. Jackie and I bonded over having incredibly geeky maths/physics boyfriends, and talked about travelling, their wedding, their dog, etc etc. We did the 1.5 hr walk to the foot of Franz Josef and marvelled at it.

We then headed off to the Fox Glacier for a halfday guided tour, which although less adventurous than the full day hike, was still pretty good fun! In fact, with the weather as it was, I'm pretty glad I was only there for 4 hours. It was beautiful but would have been way better in the summer sunshine – I was a little soaked and cold by the end of the four hours! I have never been so glad to see my possum socks.

Garth Nix fans: yes I was hoping to see some Clayr but alas no. Maybe they live on a different glacier....

Now back and nomming some chilli (it's improving as it ages) and getting ready to go soak myself in the Glacier Hot Pools. MMMM.