"Stick around guys, it's ya lucky day". We'd only met Roscoe, the tall and typically laid back kiwi for a couple of minutes. He was a man of few words, but those were the words that I'll never forget.
I'll never be able to describe in enough detail the excitement of the day we've just had! I'm buzzing again, just trying to document it all. We really are the luckiest couple! Anyway, for now, I'll try and start at the beginning...
We woke late, aching from the exertions of the past few days. The steps of pain had left their mark on our calves! Subsequently, we started slowly, stretching in the sun by the van and gently working our bodies back into action. We'd borrowed a map of Mt Cook area from our friend Susan when we'd stayed in Queenstown and promised to return it to her father who was a pilot at the tiny Mt Cook Ski Planes airstrip. We'd planned to spend the day rock climbing, but went to drop the map in first.
We literally couldn't believe our luck. After returning the map, he asked if we were in a rush to go anywhere, then uttered those magic words! He was minutes away from heading out on a scenic flight with some Japanese tourists and there were two spare seats in the nine seater plane! My jaw must have hit the ground as I tried to stay cool! He suggested we pop some shoes on, and grab a camera; we walked calmly to the door, then sprinted back to the van! Five minutes later we climbed aboard the tiny 'Pilatus' and left the ground!
I'll let the pictures do the talking from here, but to give you a bit of reference, this is us heading up towards (and then over the Tasman Glacier - note the icebergs in the lake).
Then a little fly right past the summit of Mt Cook!
And over the Franz Joseph Glacier... (At which point, we'd crossed the Alps and could see all the way down to the west Coast, where we'd been last week!).
As I was busy peering out of the window trying to absorb it all, I suddenly realised that we were very close to the snow. Clare grabbed my arm and exclaimed 'we're landing!'. I couldn't believe it! I though we were just getting a scenic flight? Before I really knew what was going on, Roscoe turned around from the cockpit and said "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Franz Joseph Glacier"!! I was speechless to suddenly find out that our new Japanese tourist friends wanted to actually get in the snow! So that's why he told me to change out of my sandels!
We disembarked on to the glacier and walked around in the snow, grinning from ear to ear, barley able to believe what was going on! While the cameras whirred, I built a little snowman!
Then all too soon, we piled back in for more breath taking views. The best bit was at one point we circled really low around the climbers hut, perched below the summit, on the east face. There was a lone set of foot prints approaching it and below was a chaotic maze of broken ice and crevasses where the glacier tumbled over the steep cliffs. So impressive and so wild.
Then we were off, headed towards the green flatlands and the airstrip. The landing was the smoothest I've ever know in a plane. Then as if it were all a dream, Ruscoe shook our hands and walked back inside the building and back to work. We were left by the runway grinning like idiots...
We needed time to let the experience soak in, so drove up the road, had a brew and some food and re-lived the experience. On the return flight, Clare had spotted some cool icebergs in the lake at the end of the Tasman Glacier that looked close to walk to, so after lunch, we hiked over to get a closer look.
The icebergs had calved off the end of the glacier and floated down the lake and made a weird and eerie spectacle. What was more amazing is that we later found out that this lake didn't even exist ten years ago! Climate change in action?...
As we sat on the lake shore, one of the small bergs cracked and a bit floated off down the river!
You'd think that that would be enough for one day, but with a change in the weather brewing, we decided to cross the valley and go rock climbing on an area of cliffs called 'Sebastapol Bluffs'. It's a fantastic crag and the biggest we've climbed on on New Zealand. We did the classic route, called Red Arête. To save time, we climbed it in three long pitches rather than the usual five. It was an easier grade than recent climbs so we flew up it as clouds began to build in the mountains.
By the time we reached the top, the summit of Mt Cook had become shrouded in cloud. There was a big comfy ledge at the top, were we just sat and looked around before two fifty meter abseils saw us back on the ground. From there it was a short walk back to the van and a two minute drive to camp. One of the greatest days ever...
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