The New Zealand Glacier

3 days ago we went to a new home for a couple days to see the glacier. We also had a couple stops along the way. The first place we went on our rode trip was to the biggest swinging bridge in New Zealand. Mom didn't like the swinging bridge because of her fear of heights, but I didn't have any problems with it. The only somewhat scary part was passing people coming in the opposite direction. You were really high up with a rocky river below but it still wasn't a big deal. We did a little hike and walked down to the river. It was a really cool view because we were in a big river gorge. The most fun part of this whole swinging bridge adventure was the ride back. We took a zipline far above the bridge to get back instead of walking back across the bridge. You didn't go super fast but it was still a really good view. I filmed it so you will probably be able to see it on youtube soon. The next place we stopped along the way was a trail that led down to the ocean. It was spectacular view but not much to tell about it because not much happened. It was a really rough beach and had lots of warnings about riptides and all that. Our last advendure was the Pancake Rocks which was a major tourist attraction with lots of tour buses and cars. I really enjoyed this hike but it wasn't what I expected, I thought that because it was called the pancake rock it would be flat round rocks and the water would maybe be the syrup but it was really a bunch of layers of sharp jagged rocks so it was only called that because they were all stacked on top of each other. There was a whole formation of the that went on for quite a ways and it was a nice hike with that even had blowholes, the only problem was it wasn't high tide so the water didn't shoot as high as usual. Now I'll get to the glaciers, the most interesting part of the trip. We got to the town that was right next to the glacier and there were like 5 different helicopter tours to choose from, dad didn't want to spend money on the tour but mom convinced him so we got a flight where they brought us up and landed on the glacier. It was exciting to for me party because I'm into aviation and because we were going to get a birds-eye view of a glacier. We got headsets that blocked out most of the sound of the engine so we could enjoy the view more. Our tour-guide talked to us about the different parts of the glacier so we also got an educational experience. Basically they're formed when tons of snow and ice fall on the top of the mountain and freezes and as more and more pressure builds up from more and more snow, it eventually makes a river of snow and ice. I loved the helicopter tour because we flew really low, much lower than you could ever fly in a Cessna. When we got to a clearing, he landed allowing us to get out and take some pictures for 10 minutes or so. Isabel did a little dance imitating happy feet while Amelia filmed her. Amelia also filmed numerous parts of the tour which I'm planning on putting on my blog or youtube for you to see. When we landed we had a few burritos which didn't taste at all Mexican, it tasted more like a sloppy-joe showing that America's still better and some stuff although it was still pretty good. We went for a hike that led to the bottom of the glacier and they had it roped off pretty far away from the glacier because it can be dangerous and unpredictable at times. I guess a couple of Koreans decided to go under the glacier and ended up dying because it caved in so they make sure you know that there's danger involved in going any closer to the glacier. Me and dad went on a cool path with lots of climbing rocks to get to the bottom of the glacier passing a sign that said EXTREME DANGER encouraging us to go just a bit closer. We could actually see under the glacier where there was a river flowing out from under the glacier which I'm assuming is really cold so I was careful to not fall in. On our way back to the rental house we stopped to see some glow worms at a little park. They really glowed good because it nightime. Yesterday, we did our long drive back to the house we're staying in and we made a couple more stops on the way. The first stop was just at a cafe to get some coffee and then we went on a hike to see a seal colony. I love those little things flopping over the rocks, I just wanted to go up and hug one. That's all we really did yesterday. Today we just hung out and recovered from our long drive. We went to Rabbit Island for most of the day where I made lots of huge pictures in the wet sand. Everyone walking down the beach would stop to look at them because they were so huge. And that's bout it, later.