We did it!

Just wanted everyone to know, we succeeded in our mission to hike a glacier!  It was an awesome experience.  Arriving at the center, they fitted us with overpants, a Gortex raincoat, socks and boots.  They indicated that we did not need hats and gloves that day.  Then 52 people piled into a bus which took us about 10 minutes up the road to the entrance of where one can view the largest commercially guided glacier in the world.  We trekked through more bush (rainforest) before coming to a two mile stretch of path through rocky terrain.  That was the farthest that sightseers can go to view the glacier.  The day had turned cloudy but already we could feel mist forming and further on our way up, we did experience pesty sprinkles that was very annoying to Jan as they spotted up her glasses.  From there, the four guides divided us into groups of 13.  We ended up with Jimmy who had just finished training.  He was a charming young man who during the winter teaches ski lessons and who was working here for summer employment.  He was equipped with a ice axe as everyone who ventures out on the glacier needs to use the axe on the trail as the glacier is constantly moving and changes dramatically from day to day.  We continued on a path up the terminal face of the glacier switchbacking up a rather narrow path of a foot or so.  That seemed to take a long time but eventually we reached a point where he instructed us to put on our crampons.  Those look like old fashioned rollerskates (for those of you who are reading this and remember those!) but serve as  snow shoes would having reinforcements of prongs that gripe  the ice.  From there we started on the ice formations-up formed steps and inclines into ice that had hues of blue where the water from the glacier was melting.  We traversed through ice caverns that were not visible even a week ago. At his point, Jan's hands got cold and she wished she had some gloves.   In all, we hiked 9 kilometersand ascended to a height of 400 meters above sea level. We have some awesome pictures that you will have to wait to see as we are on this computer at the next accommodation and are not going to use up the time here to load them down. The worst part was when we reached the bottom of the glacier and had 2 miles to go to the bus.  After giving back our gear, we jumped in the car to drive down to Haast which has some of the purest beaches and rainforest in the world.  We just made it in time for dinner which turned out to be a wonderful four course meal that lasted almost two hours.  This place is situated in a very remote area and the host loves to involve the guests in many excursions.  His favorite to go see the penquins who nest on one of the beaches.  We were hoping to have enough energy to go see them before we left but are unsure even this morning, if we can muster that up.  Maybe after some breakfast.