Glacial

Yeah, so, about that glacier walk. I arrived at the Franz Josef Glacier Guide center at 12:30pm, got geared up with rain jacket, over trousers, boots, and crampons, got on the bus, and made the 10 minute journey to the starting point of the hike. You can see the glacier from across the valley and it doesn't look that far away, perhaps a 10 minute walk. It's an optical illusion, though, as it's actually 2.5 kilometers and about a 35-40 minute walk.

I chose to do a half day walk, so I had about two hours of ice time. I was hoping for photo opportunities to rival those of someone else I know, but - to be perfectly honest - I felt kind of meh about the glacier itself. I actually thought the surrounding scenery of the glacier valley and the glacier guide was much superior! It was fun tramping around on the ice, though, glad I wore two pairs of socks. :-) Seeing the blue color of the ice and knowing that the water was clean enough to drink were pretty neat, too.