Paparoa Park Motel South Island

... disappointing news...that none of the heli-hikes from yesterday went up due to inclement weather and the day we're scheduled to go wasn't looking good either, so we signed up for a half day hike as a back up.

Well, upon waking up this morning, we knew immediately that we probably weren't going to get on the glacier via a helicopter. It was pouring rain and the clouds were down pretty low.

We joined the half day tour in the afternoon. After a short hike ...

... is a very pretty town very close to both ocean (which you can see from certain points) and right at the foot of the mountains - so a perfect place to live for people who love skiing / snow boarding AND surfing.. its all in the one place!
Again we met some fellow Aussie travellers that night at the glacial hot pools who were sad to be coming to the end of their trip.

... down the 700 steps again and made it back to fox village 5 hours after we started. i then drove out to lake materson about 5km away and went for a walk around the lake of mirrors as it is know as u can take amazing photos on mt cook and mt tamsen reflected in the water when its still. however the water was ripply so my photos r not so good.  

on wednesday it was raining again so yesterday i was really lucky, i went to franz joseft glacier and walked to the face of the ...

The next morning we had another chunky drive up the west coast to the glaciers. We stopped off at the view point for Fox's glacier and had a quick look and then carried on to Franz Joseph glacier where we had booked a glacier experience tour for the afternoon. The tour was great and we really enjoyed it. They kitted us out with waterproofs and crampons and we headed out to the glacier. After about an hours walk we reached the terminal face of ...

... caves. Jon squeezed through a really narrow ice tunnel which he said was amazing... I took the easier and drier route around the top. Our guide carefully cut steps into the ice with his pick in random places to help our journey.

In the afternoon we went as far up the glacier as we could, stepping carefully over huge crevasses in the glacier which looked pretty scary!

That night we had a meal back in Franz Josef... Lamb shanks made a refreshing change to pasta.

We have now driven accross from Christchurch on the east coast to the west coast. We had to drive through the mountains in the middle of the country, the roads were ok though but it was a bit windy! We stopped at some of the scenic view points and saw lots of rainbows due to the rain/sun.

During one of the stops we saw the NZ native Kea bird (green parrot) which is supposed to be very clever but ...

... glass of wine at the café and then back to my digs – and I beat the rain!

Dinner was had at The Landing, in what was for all intense and purpose was an American style bar serving humongous portions of pretty good food. I settled for a rack of ribs which was hearty and satisfying. It was quiz night but I decided to head on back to the villa for a kip.

We defrosted the car and left Wanaka, heading for the coast. It was a beautiful drive past mountains and lakes, through gorges and over rivers, to the sea. We stopped off at two waterfalls, which both had crystal-clear blue streams running past them. They were both in a lush valley surrounded by cliffs and a forest. We reached the coast at a town called Haast, where we stopped at a roadside cafe for fish and chips. We drove north from Haast to a look-out ...

Franz Josef has some of the most beautiful scenery we've seen so far, a small town surrounded by huge snow capped mountains. We are still constantly amazed at how unpopulated New Zealand is and how unspoiled the countryside is.

We spent our first afternoon in Franz relaxing in the 20 person hot tub! It was so hot that i had to keep on getting out to cool off to avoid overheating!

Whilst in Franz we completed a full day hike of the ...