New Zealand is a country of breathtaking scenery and rich culture. In three weeks, I traveled all around the South Island visiting places that were all so dramatically different allowing us to truly experience New Zealand.

I hiked the base of the tallest mountain in Australasia, learned Maori tribal dances, hiked a glacier and ate a Fergburger in Queenstown. While it is hard to pinpoint a specific activity or event that sticks out, hiking Fox Glacier is one of the more unique adventures that I was lucky enough to do on my trip.

Sunglasses were mandatory and we were all extremely happy to have them when we took our first step on the blinding, white sheet of ice. Our guides equipped us with very fashionable boots along with metal spikes called cramp-ons that we tied around the bottom of our boots for traction when walking on the glacier.

Our guide pointed where the river of ice used to be, found small ice caves for us to crawl into, and made us all drink the crisp water the trickled down from little streams. We all took a picture with her ice axe lying on top of the ice after she told us it would look super cool if we turned the picture on its side; which I have modeled with my friend in the picture above.

Text and photo by Liz Nelson, Virginia Tech student on the 2011 wintermester New Zealand program. After such an amazing experience on our Australia: North Queensland and New Zealand programs, Liz will be off on our Antarctica program later this year!