I climbed a glacier!

Yesterday was such an incredible day. We headed out on the bus and our first stop was in a little town where we could look at a store full of jade. I saw a photo store on the corner so I ran over there and asked if they could charge up my battery for a little while for me.. and they did! I only got 15 minutes of battery charge, but it's lasted me this far!

We then stopped in Ross, another little town that was pretty hoppin' during the gold rush of the 1840s, but now only 300 people live there and it's a really quiet town. It was cool to read about the history of the town and see one that went from booming to next to nothing in such a short time.

Then we arrived in Franz Josef! We had half an hour to eat and get back to the bus to go to our orientation for the glacier hike. I scarfed down some ramen noodles (I felt like a true backpacker) and headed out. I was kind of nervous about the whole thing because of my knee, but I knew that I wouldn't get an opportunity like this for another long while. The view was STUNNING. I ended up going with the "fast" group and had lots of lovely conversations with my tour guide about his drunken escapades and his piercings and all kinds of wonderful stuff. My knee held in there, although sometimes I had to walk up and down the ice stairs one at a time (love you, Gramma! Well.. and Dad for that matter!) BUT, I'm alive to tell the tale and it was an INCREDIBLE experience. However, since glaciers are a think of the past in Wisconsin, and we learned all about what they did when they still existed in the States, I really didn't know that there were that many glaciers in the world. So I was asking really stupid questions about them. Ah, well.

When we got back, we had some dinner and then went to some hot pools. What a perfect ending to such a lovely day. I went with two girls from Korea and one from Vietnam. Now I want to go to Asia so bad. I had some awesome conversations with them about their lives back home and gave them some really good English practice :) After that, I just came back to the hostel and tried desperately to try to get into the book that Miriam and I are reading, but it became more of a time-filler, so I just headed to bed.

Today we're off to Queenstown! I think we're making a bunch of stops along the way, but when I get there, Laura will be waiting for me and we're going to head to the hotel her parents and Chelsea are staying at. I'm excited to see them for our last night together in New Zealand! They're going to Milford Sound today (I'll be doing that on Sunday) so that's exciting!

I'm coming home in 8 days (well, 9 for back home.. I technically have a 48 hour July 10th..) I can't believe I'm in single digits, and almost less than a week away!!