blog.olya

it really took a while before i can look at photographs from new zealand and marvel that i actually saw that.

i have only 2 days left to write about (and a little - the day of departure where we left at like 5 am), but i decided that i’ll put up the last few days that i’ve already written anyway.

the weekend here went awesomely - i spent another full day at the beach, almost bought a dress, and realized i can now carry 7 kg worth of groceries for about 25 minutes.

enjoy the entries!

• 20 - feb 7: wanaka to haast
• 21 - feb 8: haast to frans joseph
• 22 - feb 9: at frans joseph (fun one)
• 23 - feb 10: frans joseph to hokitika (different fun)

for photographs start here and end when you get bored :)

the day began with the bad news that my bag still has not arrived. after some phoning the YHA in haast, it turned out that my bag is still in haast as of this morning. wtf mate… it was sitting there for a whole day? argh!!!

anyway, the choices were put as follows:

our cozy group of three - anja, oleg and myself - have all booked ourselves some day trips for the day at the glacier.

the craziest trip was booked by oleg - ice climbing. this is when climb a chunk of ice using boots with very sharp points, and a pair of axes. the safety is a top rope that’s hooked to you, and a guide belaying you. of course, i think that’s the reasonable part - the part that is very UNreasonable, is the part where they gotta start at 7:45am.

the next craziest trip was booked by anja - a full day (8 hour) walk on the glacier, with 6 hours spent on the ice, and start time at 8:15am. walking on the glacier entails putting on special shoes with spikes in them (”ice talons”), and then following the guide around the glacier using paths that are created especially for you.

and my calm trip was the 3/4 day trip, which is longer than the half-day trip, but not as grueling as the full day trip. to quote from the brochure “with lots of photographic opportunity” - so given how tired and under the weather i’ve been feeling, i decided to take this “opportunity”. the fact that there were two starting times - 7:45 (right…) and 10:30

thus, my morning was fairly calm - given how usually at 10:30 we have to be packed and out for 30 minutes, and the only thing i had to do was dress, eat breakfast, buy a bottle of water and be there.

on that note: dress.

basically, the choice of wear on the glacier is something that dries quickly on the bottom, and 4 warm layers on the top. well, the warm layers part wasn’t tough, because i was pretty prepared on that aspect . but the quick dry pants wer an issue, cause i only had 2 pairs of pants (pyjama, and cotton brown ones). i also had 3/4 length pants, which in hindsight is what i should’ve worn despite them not being quick dry (jeans and cotton), and lastly i also got a pair of shorts. like, summer shorts. which is what i was told to wear on the glacier.

while being slightly sceptical, we do what we gotta do, so in shorts and 3 layers (it was a very sunny warm day) i went off, making it about 3 minutes before our group of 26 people has launched.

after outfitting us into super waterproof jackets and big boots (you don’t wear your own shoes cause you will be outfitted with the afore mentioned ice talons, i.e. a big set of spikes attached to the foot) off we went on a bus ride to the bottom of the glacier. of course the bottom of the glacier is really about an hour’s walk from the parking lot (with ice talons in a bag, and i took my wide angle (attached) and kit lens for the polarizer filter, cause i had no clue how shooting all that bright white snow will work out, and 1.25 liter water bottom). so, that was a nice, brisk start to the day.

at the bottom we’ve split into +adventurous and -adventurous groups, where i went for the slower paced -adventurous. in the end we covered pretty similar terrains, and given all the stuff i was carrying and my generally not-the-best shape, i was pretty happy with my choice.

the hike up the glacier’s face was fast paced and tired us all out quickly. later on, in the evening, oleg remarked that the initial climb was tough for him as well. after that initial push, the adventure began.

the advertising said that we’d feel “refreshingly surprised at the sense of your own achivement”. that was indeed true, as we have spent an insane amount of time climbing into, out of, and going over cracks and crevices in the ice. at one point, the friendly old british man (who, together with his wife, has already been on an iceberg in the canadian rockies), asked me after we went through a particularly long, narrow, twisty, ice passage - “so, are your legs quick-dry?”. apparently they were, as they rarely felt cold, and my biggest concert through the hike was when should i stop and shoot, and when should i hug the camera and squeeze. since everything went well with only positive remarks from the well equipped guide (”how are the papparazi doing back there?” when me, and another british couple, where the guy was also shooting with a DSLR, started lagging a bit behind)
anyway, the evening was spent with some food, some rest, some spa, some beers, and oleg and me aching from the excersize. oleg was totally aching, where as i was totally aching mostly in lower body. anja was totally fine from her experience. :)

i advice looking towards the photographs for the way it looks. but, lessons learned for today:

• glaciers are made out of ice
• ice is cold
• therefore, glaciers are cold (sometimes)
• bringing the thin, light, synthetic pad that my dad gave me made me the only person who sat in warmth ON the iceberg during lunch
• ice melts. making squeezing through crevices possible.
• those spikes on the bottom of our shoes saved us many times today
• climbing through big ice cracks and hiking over big chunks of ice feels like climbing within an icecube, but cooler
• glaciers are made out of big ice cracks and big chunks of ice
• therefore, glaciers are cool (always)

upon departing haast, we sleepily stumbled into the car and left towards the next exciting thing - the glaciers. the trip towards the glaciers was punctuated with naps (for me), a few stops at pretty roadside locations (waterfalls and rainforests), and the realization that i forgot a whole bag of stuff in haast about 2 hours into the 4 hour drive. we decided that i’d call them and ask them to send it forward to glaciers with someone else who’s staying there, as haast is mostly and essentially a stopover for people going to the glaciers from wanaka.

the excitement of the day was delivered in a form of a root into which we “crashed” (i.e. a road kinda jammed into). the car was fine, and after a car servicing station deflated the wheel and took out the wood, oleg (the driver) was fine too. :)

the evening was magnificently peaceful, with a lovely sunset over surrounding mountains, and a game of chess. i played some random guy, one out of many chess players who seem to gather there daily. i lost, 1-2 (we played 3 games). in the first game i had a very elegant mate, but in the last one he completely annihilated me.

the next day we all had big adventures awaiting us, so we went to sleep fairly early.