Scenic Circle Glacier Country Fox Glacier

... river was a grey/green glacial colour. We crossed the river twice on wooden suspension bridges which wobbled a lot! I would definitely recommend this walk. You have to be fairly fit but not super fit. It's rocky underfoot so good shoes essential. Absolutely stunning scenery. The walk ends at a lake at the end of the valley which has icebergs floating in it like jewels, all different shapes - one looked like a seal. <br><br>

... return but if that was a walk, then I am a mountaineer &#8211; it was an hour of climbing up a steep set of steps built into a mountainside. I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest, I was blinded by sweat and had to keep stopping to give my legs a chance to recover &#8211; just when I thought I might be getting a bit fitter. I was really tempted to give up but glad I didn&#8217;t &#8211; the views were excellent and I had a real sense of achievement ...

... that at the neighbours BUT I have to say the neighbours being our Kiwi Cousins certainly do have a pretty home!! We stayed at the Hermitage Hotel, which faces Mt Cook and sits on the side of Lake Pukaki. We were pretty excited to be getting some sleep and waking up to all there was to offer in this region so dinner and bed was pretty much the order of the night. The food at the restaurant was fine dining and yummy.<br><br>Hmmm Yep pretty much all we can see are ...

... for my comfort I came across a closed section in which there was a practice session for downhill slalom racing. Next thing I see is a racer flying off the top of the hillside above me rushing down the slope with a thud and a grunt then slewing his way past at, I guess 60mph or so. It made for some exciting footage on my camera.<br>I only completed one long blue run as Gail was tired and we had enough by 3pm so cut early to beat the rush back to town ...

... and then 30 minutes climb up lots of steps which lead us to the ice. It takes at least an hour in total just to get to the glacier. <br> <br><br><br><br>Finally it gets exciting and we put our crampons on! It takes a moment to get used to them, but soon we are walking on the glacier like a group of Antarctic explorers! The glacier looks big from the viewing point at the car park, but when you are on it and looking up, you realise how huge it ...

... make our way back into the town to return all our equipment. A short walk back to the hostel and we dash to get changed and make our way to the hot tub before it fills up. We find there are already a few people in it but we squeeze in. We were informed of a fish and chip shop in the town that is pretty cheap and so by this point we were all thoroughly looking forward to a tasty dinner, but are informed by a couple of girls ...

... Louise couldn't be talked into dangling from a large chunk of ice held only by a couple of screws and a rope. She opted for a half-day trip walking on the glacier; far more serene than the sort of midlife crisis activity I was about to delve into.<br><br>Later that afternoon we headed up to the glacier ourselves for a sneak preview as to what we were letting ourselves in for. We've seen a number of glaciers over the years on our travels and by any measurements this one was pretty ...

... and ready for our full day on the glacier. Our guide Richard suited us up with some more wooly socks, tramping boots, crampons (spikes for your boots!) and rain gear. A little van drove us to the trailhead for the glacier and we hiked about 30 minutes through the lush rainforest at the perimeter of the glacier. It was pretty steep and we were soon stripping off layers of our warm clothing. It was beautiful though and on the way up we drank out of a fresh forest ...

... with their axe! We even saw an ice fall while climbing...are you sure we should continue??. The guides are well experienced, working 5 days a week. They know all the different routes of the "maze". <br><br><br>We see the blue pools, go in the very narrow corridors, slide into tunnels and are dropped into holes. We feel like Eskimos...I am happy to see the blue ice!! Despite the rain, everyone is in ...

... of the way along the long drive to Motueka, the access town for the Abel Tasman National Park. we camped at a remote DOC site called Slab Hut Creek. There were two flightless birds there which I've since found out were Wekas. They were very friendly and formed quite an attachment to Nick, they even got possessive and competitive between themselves. I think Nick was as attached to them as they were to him but we had to keep moving and so we left in the morning.