"It's all about the Climb..."

Yes. I made a Miley "Smiley" Cyrus reference. Sue me, why don't you?

Hillary and I woke up the next day in Franz Josef because we were going to CLIMB A GLACIER. That's right. A full-day glacier hike on the Franz Josef glacier was going to be a long day to say the least. We woke up at 7:15am to get ready for our 8:15am departure. We walked down the street from our hostel, arrived at FJ Glacier Guides, suited up, and met our guides.

After putting on all of the layers, and officially feeling like I would need to be the next contestant on the "Biggest Loser" it was time to make the trek towards the glacier. First there was a 15 min + walk through a little forest and then we made it to the glacier valley. It was in sight and looked rather close (10 min walk tops!) We then took some pictures and chose which group we wanted to be in. Hillary and I decided that we would stay with group 3... the more 'relaxed' group. We were all going to see the same things, but we wanted to be able to take our time and take as many pictures as we wanted to. We had our group of 9 set: Hillary, myself, 4 British friends, 1 random girl from the U.K. and then a Malaysian couple. This was sure to make for an interesting day. First things first was to make our way towards the glacier. Remember how I said it was like 10 minutes away? Correction: it was an illusion. It actually took us about 45 minutes to walk through the valley to the glacier. You know what else was an illusion? The sight of my 'get-up' that added about 100lbs to my body frame. (Not to mention the extra 10lbs from the camera!)

Just Another Day in the Life...

Hillary and I taking a break on the glacier!

Ron Weasley?

The Malaysian couple. This was them ALL day. Priceless.

However, it was a really fun day and Hillary and I had a blast! We hiked for hours, burned many calories and I was still pinching myself at the thought that I was just climbing a glacier that day. 'Just another day in the life...' After we walked back down the glacier, we were told we had walked about 10 miles that day. WOAH. How very athletic and skinny of us...

We then returned our gear and headed back towards our hostel to cook a yummy pasta dinner with Lauren. We then watched the first Lord of The Rings (my VERY first time.) That's right.. I know.. I have not seen any of the LOTR trilogy until I stepped foot into this country. (So for those of you who thought that I may have chosen NZ to study abroad b/c of those movies--you are DEAD wrong.) I have to admit they are not too bad to watch. Although not my favorite genre of movie (Rom-Coms are, duh.) it was amazing to know that the scenery was all around me. And not to mention, Hillary and I had another special activity planned for the next day...