How I celebrated my birthday

My 28th birthday was celebrated in a bit of an unusual way. Last year, I went bowling with my friends, and got my butt kicked by Jenn and Sean. This year, I let one of the three advancing glaciers in the world humble me.

Meet Franz Josef....We took this picture en route to the face of the glacier, which was still 2 km away, eventhough it looks like it's 2 feet away.....indescribable!


Our guide Henry passed right by this, without a second look. This was the point where I started to wonder what Jenn got me into.....

....and also why she wouldn't let me read the disclaimer I signed minutes before.

The hike was an all-day affair, and although they called it a walk, it was a full-out climb. The physical portion is what i was most worried about. But the pounding of my heart wasn't just coming from the struggle of my lungs and muscles, rather from pure fear!

You will not be able to see pictures of the most frightening moments. Jenn and I were not concerned with photo-ops at these points. All you will see are happy still shots, when we're upright, with two feet on the ground. The rest of it, will remain in my memory, so I never agree to do this again.

Yes, it was the coolest way to spend my birthday and the hardest thing I've done on this trip so far. But really, all I could think about was each step ahead of me. I was truly in the present, as I've never been before.

Note: spending two months on beaches in Australia is not good training for New Zealand.

A small crevasse....they got so much bigger than this. The largest we had to hurdle across was about 3 feet, adn you couldn't see the bottom. I was in disbelief that they were asking me to do this. I had to propel my body forward and hope to God I made it to the other side.

Some of the ice....

Our guide got us lost for about an hour amidst the ice. Seriously! But what were we to do? He was the one with the axe!

Smooth sailing....

...getting a little steeper

This picture is not upright. He is our guide, adn he is actually carving steps up for us so we could pull ourselves up on the rope. Turn this picture 90 degrees and you'll have a small idea of what we were being asked to do.

This is Jenn at our highest point in the glacier. We froze our bums off having lunch here....but we were thankful to be in one piece. Next problem: coming down!

Almost half way down, on a break. I was so scared here. The way down was quite steep, and muscle control was at a minimum. For the physios out there, Jenn and I apparently have more knee hyperextension than we thought! Lock 'hem up!

This is an ice cave. No, we didn't fit through this. Would have been nice though to get out of there in a nice little tunnel.

Lastly, I have to thank my friend Jenn. Without her, I would never have done this. She has pushed me to do things out of my comfort zone throughout this trip, and it has both humbled me and surprised me at every turn. You rock Jenny P., even if you got a little, ok a lot, scared yourself!