Franz Josef- Wanaka

We got up for our glacier hike, spent about 45 minutes walking through the rainforest to and from the glacier and had about 4 hours trekking through the Franz Josef Glacier. It was awesome! We got given all the special clothing and equipment and the talands that strapped to our boots so that we could hold a grip on the ice. We walked for about 2 hours and then stopped to have our picnic on the ice, we got cold bottoms!! The environment was so cool, and we had to go through some pretty small ice allys. We were so lucky with the weather as it rained the day before and the day after in Franz Josef and being on the west coast of New Zealand it tends to rain a lot. The ice was amazing,it was over 150 metres thick. I just can't believe it doesn't all melt, especially on sunny days like the day we went! The photos don't show the expanse of it, it's 15km from front to back.
By the time we came off the ice I was gradually getting in more pain as we'd been stepping up and down on the ice. I think we picked the best trip for me! I really enjoyed it. When we came off the ice, we had a shower and then had a few drinks over happy 2 hours in the bar!

We left Franz Josef and made our way to Wanaka, quite a long drive and Scotty got a bit lost and forgot to stop at one of the places along the way, meaning we missed our lunch stop...nevermind, it's only his first trip bless him! We did stop at Lake Matheson which was beautiful, the picture of the lake is below and we had a rather expensive cup of tea and we had to make half of it ourself!!

We arrived in Wanaka late afternoon, and just generally chilled. Got a tv in our room, so it was an excuse to stay in and not spend money! We also took to eating super noodles, like all travellers must do! Again in Wanaka we put our names down to do a sky dive, but this time the plane is was having it's service, so it's obviously not meant to be! We decided to spend the second day there looking around the lake...as that's what's there! So we went on a 4 hour walk...gee I am getting fit! The weather was good apart from the 5 minute rain shower. After our walk we had a nice cold drink, went to the supermarket (again!) and then had tea and sat out on the bench in the evening sun. Had another chilled night watching more movies!
We left Wanaka this morning and made our way to Queenstown, stopped at puzzle world on the way, that was pretty cool and at a small place called Arrowtown. We also watched several people lauch themself off a bridge at the original bungy site, I chose not to do it again!! We arrived in Queenstown a couple of hours ago, met up with the girls that I spent Christmas and New Year which is cool, hopefully spend a day or so with them before they move on again. Queenstown already seems pretty cool from what I've seen, can already see my bank account decreasing quite heavily!! Queenstown for my birthday, update to come soon!