Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Franz Josef

We took an early bus (arrived by 9:30am) on Wednesday to Franz Josef, located on the west coast of NZ. With nothing planned, we decided that a hike and trip to the supermarket were all we needed to fill our day. As you can see from the pictures, the hike gave us a good chance to see the glacier from a distance before we would conquer it the following day.

The trail had lots of roots and rocks to be wary of, and while looking down to watch our step we noticed this:

UGO (unidentified growing object)

What is it? It was about 3-4 inches tall and hairy. Can someone research and please identify this UGO (unidentified growing object)?

After about 3 hours we came upon this great pond where we relaxed for about an hour.

Franz Josef

Today we took the full day hike up the glacier. We left at 9:15 and returned at 6:00 and were very, very sore! It was a strenuous hike, but very beautiful and exciting. We wore crampons and had to go from shorts and short-sleeves to 3 layers plus rain jacket, hat and gloves. Our guide would cut out the trail on the way up to help clear the stairs and fill any crevices.

Another squeeze



It was such an intense day of climbing and hiking that we don't really know what else to say about it besides it was a ton of fun and we'd highly recommend it. Please enjoy these photos and post some questions if you want to know more!



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Loving the photos! It's always great to hear of your activities. Love ya. Mom

Anonymous said...

I've tried briefly to find the name of the plant with no success. Stephanie says it looks like a hairy penis. So that's all I've got.

Anonymous said...

I think your Ugly plant may be a Cyathea Medullaris...the beginning of a majestic fern tree. It is the fastest growing variety in New Zealand, and can reach a height of 25 meters. Mom