Who can say that they have explored a glacier. I'm not sure. Actually, we weren't really aware of glaciers until we got here to NZ. There are two glaciers here and they form two small towns that are centered around the tourism of the glaciers. You can take a helicopter up to see them and you can trek up to them and onto them. We went with a company called Franz Joseph guides and did an all day hike. Here they call it tramping vs treking or hiking. So we walked about 2 km to the face of the glacier and then put on our crampons and began the hike up the face of ice. The guides carry ice picks and actually cut our steps for us and a pathway to navigate through the mountains and cravaces of ice. At one point we went through this really long crevace of ice that was so small you couldn't put one foot in front of the other- you had to sort of step through while being pressed between two huge sheets of dripping ice.
Throughout the day, we kept commenting on how it was one of the coolest expereinces we had ever done. We have hiked a bunch through various parts of NZ but being on the ice was just absolutely crazy. It is actually progressing forward each year about 10 m!! They get so much snowfall, that it doesn't account for the melt and as a result the ice actuallly progresses forward each year for the past 10 years. Its really crazy.
We were exhausted from the adventure and basically called it a night after getting some nachos that night and a couple drinks. The sunset was cool and we were also able to enjoy some more scenery on our final drive with the van to greymouth. What a great trip with the van.
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