Motel Franz Josef Hokitika

... br><br>I walked into town next day &#8211; downhill wasn&#8217;t too bad - and then joined my walking tour of one. The guide had a very monotonous voice and didn&#8217;t seem to convey any enthusiasm and I can&#8217;t say I was looking forward to spending 2 hour with him but I suppose he did convey a few interesting facts. I have experienced plenty of walking tour guides and he was unique in his delivery style of boring &#8211; I can&#8217;t believe that his pre ...

... br><br>I arrived back in town, to find a spectacular rainbow hanging over the town and the mountains. It have honestly never seen any rainbow like it, it was huge. It went from the ground on one side, way up to the top of the mountains then back to the ground on the other side, it was soo bright too! Im sure there was a pot of gold at the end of this one. It was absolutely gorgeous to witness. It made me soo happy, a perfect end ...

... all the time looking for costume ideas and cheap clothing.<br><br>The Poo pub is run by an eccentric 83 year old who happens to be the oldest publican in New Zealand, called Uncle Les. Check out the pictures, I go as a punk and Steph as Harry Potter. Lee wins the best costume, dressed as Pamela Anderson. His prize a canyon swing in Queenstown.

... my camera which refused to open for a couple of hours after, and developed a worrying humming sound. We drove on a couple of hours, stopping for lunch in the small tourist village of Franz-Josef, before driving five kilometres to the car park for the glacier. We went for a walk across a barren flat plain of rock and stone that was a lake forty years ago. This was a good half hour's walk to ...

... crampons we trust. We did reach one high ice wall that was too ambitious. We went back the way we came, which is when I took my fall. I slipped down some fairly steep ice, and had my fall broken by some rocks. I could have been really badly hurt, but as I looked up towards a disappointed Cliff, he just said 'try not to do that again.' The glacier walk was brilliant. Cold, wet, hard, spectacular and stunning. And it made the evening's warm shower all the better.

... to rain heavily (and sideways as well due to the high winds). So our evening was reduced to a trip to the food store and then dinner in our cabin... Giving us yet AGAIN time to catch up on our travelblog and postcard-writing... This might have been our first time since arriving in New Zealand that we have had proper bad weather, and it really makes sleeping so much better :D (The rain we had in Wellington was a light drizzle in comparison... :P)

... off we went to the glow-worms! i was really glad that anna was with me, once we got to the dell i whipped my torch out but it was pitch black (other people there to see them so not too scary!) but it was literally a one min walk in the dark until we saw them! such a sight it was like tons and tons of little green stars all around you! definately want to do black water rafting in waitomo to see them!!! we spent quite a lot of time in awe of them!! then back to the hostel for bed! next ...

... we refuelled and restocked before continuing towards Arthur's Pass. Having had lunch in an unappealing lay-by, we turned inland up SH73 and drove a good distance on relatively gentle inclines and quiet roads before reaching the very steep top section of the pass; our little van struggling valiantly up to a height of 912m, often in second gear. Once again, we were fortunatel with the weather - low cloud seeming to disperse as we neared the top and village to ...

Oudejaarsdag 2005 bracht ons naar Frans Josef, een klein (errug klein) dorpje aan de voet van de Frans-Josef Gletsjer. <br>Aangezien het nog steeds prachtig weer was, besloten we voor het inchecken, gelijk even een kijkje te nemen bij de gletsjer. Ook voor Erike, die uit Zwitserland komt en toch wel wat gletsers gewend is, zoals ze zelf zegt, was dit erg bijzonder om een gletsjer zo laag in de bergen te zien. Enkele honderden jaren ...

... overgebracht en hebben daarom dus geen natuurlijke vijanden. Er zijn nu onderhand 17 miljoen possums die alles eten wat ze maar tegenkomen en<br>wat de Nieuw-Zeelanders lief is: van Kiwi-eieren tot de wortels van bomen op de bergen. De regering van NZ staat nu toe dat mensen met een geweer onbeperkt possums neerschieten en als je er eentje aanrijdt met de auto is dat "Good on ya!". Ik heb al mensen vol trots horen claimen dat ze meer dan 1000 possums gedood ...