KyleRocco

Jan 3, 2012

We made breakfast, booked our hostel for tonight, and got a late start leaving Franz Josef. We trekked northward and then eastward, driving clear across the South Island towards Christchurch. Our plan was to stop and hike in Arthur's Pass along the way and continue on to Christchurch. The weather was crappy, rain, and overcast, we stopped in Arthur's Pass, saw my first Kia

ate lunch, got a few postcards, and went on an hour long hike. Hikes like this seem insignificant now after doing the Routeburn Track, I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I just realized how much more there is to be seen on a hike, and how the landscape can change so drastically, just by using your own two feet. It's such an incredible experience doing it under your own power than by car. I look forward to more long distances treks in the future! Anyway, it was raining, we were properly protected, but without much incentive to get to the end, we both ultimately decided to turn around about 20 minutes into the hike.

We were unable to do the 5 to 8 hour hike due to time constraints and the decision to make it to Christchurch tonight. We saw a several hundred foot waterfall, briefly, off the side of the road, but Arthur's Pass became a disappointment. To be fair, we didn't have adequate enough time to hike the famous treks and given the opportunity I would go back for more, as via the postcards, it looks incredible! We drove on and stopped at a place called "Cave Stream" that I learned from the girls in hot springs. Apparently, there was this stream off the road that goes 650m through this underground cave and there are no tours, you just bring your own torch, wear sturdy shoes, and wet suit bottoms / warming clothing is recommended. We changed into long sleeves, swim suits, and water shoes. Hiked down the hillside and stumbled across the unmarked, but unmistakable entrance to the cave.

As we entered the cave and light began to fade into the distance, we were quickly submerged up to our belly buttons, and without the flash lights, you couldn't even see your hand a quarter inch away from your face. The water level lowered to about knee height, however, the flow was pretty constant. One misstep, and either of us could easily be swept off our feet into the flowing water. We took the time to climb about the cave into narrow side passages, and to find short cuts within these that met on the far side to scare each other in the darkness.

There was a not a single human besides us in the cave and it was getting to be evening, there were three or four cars in the parking lot when we began the cave walk, and zero when we returned, had something happened, we could've been in for a very interesting experience. However, I digress, we continued to trudge up the stream with the use of our torches (flash lights) and attempted a few pictures, but in the pitch black, they were a challenge.

We encountered numerous 2' to 3' waterfalls that we had to climb up, all the while attempting to balance ourselves with the caves walls, watch our footing, all while holding our flashlight / Tim's camera in our hands. At last, after probably almost an hour of hiking upward in the stream, which was getting increasingly chilly. The lack of sun light, let alone, ANY light, the cold water sucking body heat from our body, it definitely got cold. We finally reached the end which culminates with a 3m (10') water fall into a pool, before spilling over an edge and down the cave. Here, Tim took the opportunity for a brief "shower" and clothes washing. I also sat on the edge, which was about the length from my hips to my feet, to create a mini-dam as we let the water accumulate above. After a minute or so of holding back the water, we were ready to unleash its power, which was more dangerous as it sounds, because I needed to stop bracing the water back and not get swept down with the water. I was able to successfully, and the rush of the 100s of gallons of water spilling over the edge and into the cave was remarkable.

We climbed up some iron rungs drilled into the rocky side, grasped a chain anchored to rock, and army crawled along the side of the rocks to the top of the waterfall, just adjacent to it, where we were finally greeted by sunlight and the exit to the cave.

A quick 10 minute walk up to our car, changing clothes, and we were back on the road towards Christchurch.

I say "my first ever" because I know I will undoubtedly do more in the future. I'm looking at you Patagonia, Chile/Argentina. Specifically you, Moreno Glacier. Wow, what an experience!! We wandered to the start of our glacier hike and were outfitted with external coats, pants, special boots, and legit crampons. I'd never seen or used crampons before, but these were serious things.

We took a 4km school bus ride to the Franz Josef Glacier, and hiked through the woods to the valley that the glacier formed. We walked for a kilometer past a waterfall or three, divided into self made groups based on ability (we went in the most aggressive group) passed the ropes that only guided tours can pass, and began our trek up the glacier.

I've never seen a glacier in my life before prior to the plane ride to Queenstown so this was my first glimpse. Wow, was it massive, and it has receded significantly over the past 100 years. However, it has carved this entire canyon and left striations along the side as its proof.

We strapped our crampons on, and began walking on ice. The bottom of the glacier was very dirty and it hardly looked like ice, but the traditional blue ice in a glacier was definitely there to be found. Our first up close glimpse was a giant cove in the glacier, which today, just 1.5 months after I was at the glacier, might no longer be there due to melting and the constant forces at work.

It was stunning, and another cove was down below with the glacial run off river flowing through it.

We began our hike through skinny passageways in the ice, and saw the glacier carrying along boulders with it. Glaciers move whatever they want, they are so unbelievably powerful.

We used some ropes on steep parts, as our guide carved some stairs into the steeper parts with his pick axe. We were given the opportunity to carry our own for the day, and the guide said usually people are excited to carry the pick axe for an hour and then it gets in the way....noooope. It provided entertainment for me all day long!!

Our first little adventure took us down a steep slopes, and into a cave within the glacier. Water was constantly dripping and there is no way of knowing when the glacier could have a major shift. The inside was incredible. Bubble shaped pockets of ice on the sides creating such a site to see!

We hiked on, up stairs, down slopes, off the track to look into / over crevasses. I stopped to fill up my water bottle on a natural glacier stream, such delicious and pure water!

Through another cove we went, with SUCH blue ice in it, because the crevasse had become too long to pass over with a ladder and up the stairs on the other side.

I continually picked away at the ice with my axe for fun, as our group was going to slow for a Brazilian guy, British woman, and myself. We would constantly delay and do more fun things on our own. We find a newly formed "slide" except when I say slide, this is a 1.5' diameter hole, that has newly been created and no one has been through, approximately 10' long on the interior, so our guide sets a line (a rope into the ice w/ an anchor) and says, "Hey Captain America, you get to be our guinea pig" (yes, our guide knew immediately that I was the one that could be messed with and decided to name me that - upon which everyone got a laugh in our group and called me that the rest of the time, and when I saw other group members in the hot springs later). Naturally, I was stoked. This is adventurous and since when am I going to turn down an opportunity like this. Ice cold glacial water was flowing down it, and I went crampons first, which were actually quite hindering my progress downward through the hole in the ice. I arched my shoulders to prevent my backside from getting soaked and 45 seconds or so later, I emerged in one piece, victorious on the glacier.

A few others did the slide as well after I proved it was safe and super cool, and we hiked on. I hiked ahead and there was a little nook in the glacier that I walked into, looked back at the group, and then just dropped to my knees suddenly, making it appear, to them, that I had just fallen into a crevasse of doom! I stood up and the group was all laughing. Onward we trekked, stopped to eat lunch on the glacier and enjoyed the stunning views. At this point, we were standing on approximately 80m (250') of ice.

We walked to the flats of the glacier, caused because movement on the top and bottom of the glacier is at the same pace.

The rest of the crevasses and jagged edges is due to unequal glacial speed at the top and bottom of the glacier, causing torsion and splitting of ice.

This was the peak we would reach, at least 1km up on the glacier, and we could see to the top another 3 to 4km away and 6km of the glacier still existed beyond the peak. I wish there was a group 1A where we could've hiked very aggressively and made it further onto the peak before turning around.

Naturally, we had already hiked up and would take a similar path down so the Brazilian, Brit and I decided to have our own fun....

We pick axe - ice climbed various locations, resulting in some bloody knuckles and decided it would be a great idea to climb under an ~11 ton boulder supported by 2 ice blocks which could give way at any moment, crushing us.

I'm so glad we did this though, it was so much fun messing around and entertaining ourselves! The hike wasn't grueling by any means, but you need to be fit enough. People of all shapes and sizes were in the other groups, but they did not progress as far up the mountain, more so taking their time on the way up.

We continued downward, and then our guides had a surprise for us. They had failed to find us a large scale portion of the picturesque blue ice, and we stumbled upon a do-able blue ice crevasse. Other guides were breaking off ice at the top of the glacier and sending fragments into the bottom to allow us better footing than the rock hard blue ice. The reason the ice is blue is due to age. Glaciers are formed by snow packing itself more and more and more, becoming ice. The bluer the ice the older it is, and here, our guide estimated the ice was approximately 80 years old. The guide lead the way and he requested that I, Captain America, follow him.

This on the other hand was NOT easy. You could not be any shape or size to do this. The guide and I trekked forward one foot in front of the other, 1 inch at a time. Quite literally. Very often it would take me several attempts to even progress forward in the glistening blue crevasse. There were shear walls of ice reaching 15'+ above me at the beginning as I trekked upward in the crevasse. The crevasse was no wider than I am skinny. My hip bones were hitting the ice in the front as I shimmied my way up.

At one point I turned to look at Tim following us, and as I turned back, I slammed my face on the ice and bloodied my nose nice and good. I trekked onward, though struggling, and made it far enough that I was going to succeed through the crevasse as well as the guide. However, the rest of our group was going to be unable to make it through, and the guides above continued to chip ice, in order to make the walking ground higher, where the crevasse was a few inches wider for everyone to fit. I was able to capture several great photos and climb around in here. What a cool (pun intended!) experience!!!

As our group exited, we hiked further downward, I went down the ropes and into the blue ice cave again as I let the group get ahead, we trekked on to where the ice was much dirtier and it was deceptive that there was even ice below our feet. We made it to the point of taking off our crampons and had successfully hiked a large portion of the Franz Josef Glacier.

We bus-ed back to town, returned our gear, walked to our hostel, and wandered across the street to the treat of the evening. Hot springs! Set at 36, 38, and 40 degrees Celsisus (96.8, 100.4, 104.0 Fahrenheit) or if I must (309 to 313 Kelvin). We started in the 38 and one of the guys from our group chatted us up, Tim left after 30 or 45 minutes, and I stayed, jumped in the 40 degree, then got to hot and moved to the 36. I was near two girls our age having QUITE the interesting conversation, which I couldn't avoid hearing, and burst out laughing at a few of their statements, and naturally small talk began. We talked for an hour or so, and another group of 3 got it, turned out they were all siblings, and the 6 of us decided to go on a hike when the pools closed at 10, about 2.5 hours after I got in. We decided to meet across the street in 30 minutes, took showers, and we all met up.

We were off to a hike, with our torches (flashlights) to see GLOW WORMS!! Animals which create a string of light, much like a spider web to attract prey, native to New Zealand. We wandered across the minuscule town and onto the pitch black forested trail. We altered between red flash lights, blue, and normal white. We allowed our eyes to adjust and turned off our lights periodically and realized that we were surrounded by the glow worms! As our eyes adjusted, they were everywhere!! Little specs of light illuminating the forest, hundreds of them!

At this point we heard people coming down the trail and decided it would be funny to all turn off our lights, and hide off to the side of the trail to scare the living crap out of them. We did this, and as they approached their torch spotted us, and they stopped in their tracks. We jokingly made 'rawwrrrr' - (loud sounding "scare someone" noises). They were actually pretty good sports about it, considering, I would have been scared beyond belief if people unexpectedly jumped out of the forest at us.

We continued further into the path, until we reached a bridge that was fenced off that said, do not carry on, the trail has been damaged due to water. So...naturally, we ignored it, and carryed on. Around the edge of the trail, we hit a shear edge falling to the river below and hugged the trees on the inside as to not lose our footing. We continued on further, and stopped in a ravine, admiring the stars and the hundreds of glow worms surrounding us. We took it all in, all spoke about traveling more (the family of 3 siblings had been everywhere!!) trips throughout south east asia and each of them had been on various trips of their own. I was so jealous and couldn't wait to embark on an adventure of my own just like theirs!! We walked back to our respective hostels, said our good-byes, and hit the sack, after one of the most unique days of my life!

KyleRocco

Backpacking the World

Sunday, September 2, 2012

New Blog: Kyle Goes Global

Friday, July 27, 2012

Jan 3 - Arthur's Pass & Caving

Jan 2 - My First Ever Glacier Hike