"Imagine if we found an Inca child. In New Zealand"

Today we went on a day hike on Fox Glacier with Fox Glacier guides. There are two glaciers in this region, Fox and Franz Josef. Ciaran did a day hike on Franz Josef when he was here 4 years ago but due to unstable glacier face, tourists can currently only access the glacier via helicopter, which bumps the price up considerably. Our 7 hour trip on Fox cost $165 in comparison with $299 for a 4 hour trip on Franz Josef, so there was no contest really.
The trip started at 9:10am and we realised on the drive up the night before, that it was a mistake staying in Franz Josef. It's only about 20km from Fox, but the drive is winding and mountainous, meaning that we had to do most of it in 3rd gear, because of Donnie's often weak constitution. We therefore had to allow extra time for that when driving straight back to Fox the next morning.
Anyway, when we got there we were all kitted out by our guides, with climbing boots, thick socks, crampons and waterproof jackets. We were then bussed up to the main car park for the glacier and split off into two smaller groups of 12.
Fox glacier is one of the few glaciers in the world that begins in the mountains and ends in lush rainforest, just a few hundred metres above sea level. As our guide put it, you can be up on a glacier in the morning and surfing by tea time.
Our day began with a short hike through the rainforest before a snack and sunblock break on a bluff high above the glacier. At this moment, we got really lucky. A river runs below the glacier and the guide had told us that the bottom of the glacier is constantly melting, and maybe once a week a big chunk will fall off into the river below. After this has happened a few times, the water from the river will build up behind the stacked up ice until it eventually breaks through in a surge wave. That happens maybe once a fortnight. And both things happened while we were sat there on our 5 minute break! The ice breaking off made a massive sound that echoed through the valley. We were all hugely excited and actually feeling pretty bad for the other tour group, as they had set off just as we arrived, and so wouldn't have seen it. Then we heard another sound and saw the surge wave rapidly snaking down the river. Our guide was practically buzzing! We just felt so lucky!

Soon enough we were down at the side of the glacier and putting our crampons on. Then, we were off! Our guide led us up a newly created pathway in one of the crevasses and onto the glacier, and from there we spent 5 hours hiking on the glacier, with our guide using his pickaxe to carve steps in the ice.

It was such a good day - our guide was really knowledgeable and it was just really cool, being able to march all over the glacier and sometimes, actually walk through holes in it.

Tonight we're in Greymouth, staying at a converted monastery. It's cool but also quite creepy! Tomorrow we head to Hamner Springs before going on to Kaikoura, hopefully for a bit of swimming with Dolphins!