"Hmmm, good question Simon... And to be honest, I'm not quite sure." That was the best response I could muster for the most interesting question I've had on the ice to date... One of my clients, while in the middle of a full day trip, was curious as to wether the ice screws that hold our hand lines in could hold the weight of an elephant. Assuming, of course, that we could find crampons large enough to fit the elephants, um, "feet", and get the elephant up onto the ice. :) Oh the things that come to mind when blogging. What's blogging anyways? For another time perhaps.
This is one of the most physical jobs I've ever had, and I enjoy it quite a little bit. The reason for this is because we carry large ice axes for cutting steps (as opposed to those used for walking or climbing). This is because we need to cut steps into the steep terrain to get our clients access to unique features. That and we have to cut ice off the walls (or tops) of the crevasses so we can walk through the bottoms of them. The handlines go in the ice next to the step lines for people to hold on to, and they're held in by those elephant-worthy ice screws that can hold about 2,500kg... In shorty short short, it's well worth the work.
As of a few weeks ago I got signed off as a Grade 4 guide (my bosses are grade 2). The training took about 5-6 weeks altogether and included everything from crevasse rescues to river-crossing training in case the Waiho (the river in our valley formed from runoff and meltwater from the glacier) floods. So now I can take clients onto the ice myself, instead of being followed around by someone with a note-pad all the time. Needless to say it's nice to have that bit behind me :)
We're allowed to take 11 clients on a full-day trek, and 13 on a half-day walk (just a shorter trip). And when we have over five hundred people (!) up on the ice in one day, you can imagine group management and timing is fairly important. There's plenty of variety as well, because each of the guides rotate through half and full day trips, eco trips (in the valley only), heli-hikes (you land higher on the ice), and ice climbing. I really do feel very blessed to have the job. The best part about all of it is the people you meet. That's the way it usually goes anyways, and this is no different. It's quite rewarding to equip people and give them the confidence to get out and explore some terrain that they would other wise never come even close to. It's not uncommon to get clients that have never seen ice or even worn boots before... guiding is a good name for it, then.
The environment is pretty wild, especially when you throw the weather in. First off, there's a huge hole in the ozone layer above Australia and New Zealand, so sunscreen is part of the daily routine, even if it's gonna be cloudy. Combine that with the amount of rainfall we get in the course of a year - about 5 meters, or 16.4 feet just in town (!!) and you have, well, a n aptly named rainforest. Just for reference, Seattle, WA gets about 3.2 feet a year... Plus we get more than that on the ice. 7.5 meters at the terminal face (front) of the glacier, and 15 meters (!!!) up top on the snowfield (neve) that feeds the crazy thing. Come on a trip and I'll tell ya all about it.
It was interesting to have a holiday season here, and to be honest it didn't really feel like it was Christmas, mostly because of the lack of snow (on the ground at least). I definitely missed my family, but it was great to be able to catch up with them on the phone/skype. The Lord provided some people for me to celebrate with as well, and we cooked a sweet meal, and chatted about different traditions we took part in at home. Backyard football, scavenger hunts (cool ones of course), and doing as many doughnuts in any parking lot in a vehicle with (preferably) rear-wheel drive. Never gets old. All this made spending Christmas evening on the beach with a bonfire a bit comical. Learning to throw a rugby ball properly helped :)
The most challenging part about being here? And I knew it would be this way long before I even got into the country somehow, is the lack of fellowship. Jesus is, bar none, the most important thing in my life, and being in a town where nobody else says that brings with it all sorts of opportunities. I continue to read my Bible every day. And I know it's not the best way to it, but I've been reading it cover to cover again, and just made the turn to the New Testament a few days ago. There's some obscure material in there buried under the famous and oft-quoted passages. Yet we don't read the Bible to finish, we read it to change. I'm in no rush. I'm memorizing what I can as well, which is Psalm 91 right now. And on my sabbath I'll listen to sermons to try and stay sharp. And to be honest, I love it. This is where I want to be for now, for this time. I feel as though I have to put up or shut up. Am I the same person here that I was in the States? Do I mean what I write about? What do I really believe? When it comes down to it, what's actually important to me? Some good questions to ask myself I reckon. Thanks to everyone who is praying, because I'm seeing the results of it :) I was able to have some great conversations with a couple guides and some locals about God and who Jesus is and why He's important. I even got to share the Gospel with a few of them. Yet it isn't me is it...
It's interesting to think of how everything is still going on else where as it normally does...
I've been able to explore a bit as well. David (another guide from England) and myself drove down to Queenstown to pick up his sister who was visiting. From there we drove up to Mt. Cook (NZ's highest peak)Village and camped, and then drove to Christchurch so she could fly out, and from there drove across Arthurs Pass through the southern alps and back south to Franz Josef. All in a weekend. It was about 17 hours driving, but who cares? Fun to see the change in the landscape and put some miles on.
Well, more later. I need to go practice putting a 6:1 pulley system together that we use for rescues because I'm being assessed on it this week. The training is on-going for everybody - which always keeps us on our toes. More later - in the mean time, Trust Jesus.
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