Well, the weather is better but our helicopter flight has been cancelled as the weather is not good for joy flights. Well time to go on one of those glacier walks. We chose the one that went up to the lookout rather than the one to the base. The reason being that we had walked on a glacier in Alaska. Boy the walks are sure to get you and keep you fit in New Zealand! Took lots of photos. Love the fact that there is a Glacier that meets a rainforest! Then of course there is the waterfalls everywhere. Back in town we gave up on a helicopter flight but found a small plane that was still doing flights but of course not landings on the snow. We took this flight about 45-50 minutes and we were the only passengers! Again what can I say, the views! We could have been up in the air longer but Andrew had to get back to go on a quad bike ride that he had booked. He had a good time. After dinner it was time to unwind as we are off again tommorrow.

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Well today the rain has set in. Apparently it rains about 200 days per year and in the town they average 7metres of rain per year, on the top of the mountain they get an average of 15metres per year.  So a walk around the few shops, lots of interesting people to meet. Lunch at the "Landing". We checked out the ice wall climbing centre. It was good to watch! We had seen many "Wicked Campervans" but had to take photos of the one here. We have a son who is a star wars fan. Really just a nice day. Dinner back in our room and then wandered back to the main street for a cuppa.

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Today we are heading for Franz Josef. Scary road in some places. Really not too much to say other than some great scenery. We were driving past one town where I had to do a double take and check out what we were  seeing - a goat following it's owner to the local shop. Lunch at Arthurs Pass and then on again. We got to Franz Josef and found our accomodation. We were about 5 kms from the carpark to do the glacier walk. We drove out to the car park just to see what walks were available. We think a lot of people walked out there, did the glacier walk and then realised it way a long way back to town. We saw one couple and offered them a lift, they were surprised but grateful. That night we just had something to eat in our room.

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Day 6 - 5th September, 2007

So, this brings me to today, we had a heaps early start, 6:30am to be exact and we set off on a shuttle bus to Franz Josef Glacier. That means nothing to you all back home, so I'll put it into time travelled... we left Queenstown at approx 7am, we then got to Franz Josef at 2pm. do the math, 7 hours on a friggin shuttle bus!!! lots of sleep deficient laughter and giggles got us through haha as well as Aimz being her snap happy self.
There were some amazing scenic shots that Aimz got on the way here, and photos will be uploaded shortly.

We are here for another 2 days, doing the 6 hour glacier hike tomorrow where we get on top of the glacier, go exploring through crevases and ice caves, and then the next day we have a 16 hour travel journey starting off with a bus to Greymouth, then a train to Christchurch, and then a plane to Auckland.

The weather here at the Glacier villages is absolutely stunning, it is warm and sunny and we have taken our jackets off!! (finally) yet we are surrounded by snow capped mountains, rivers and waterfalls.

well well, i must be off for now, i will continue this another time.

Ps: here is a list of things that are friggin hilarious to Ben, Aimz and I but probably won't make sense nor be any funny if you heard the story.

1. losing passports
2. MARSHY PUFFS! aka Mallow puffs, and in conjunction with this - "i'll save you marshy puff!" HAHA, classic
3. "can we go swimming?"

oh and there's many more but Ben and Amy are sitting next to me eating blue vein cheese and drinking wine so i must go and join them.. :)

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We left Barrytown in the morning around 8am. It was f*cking freezing. And there was no hot water. Basically, bad start of the day.

Our drive was quite rainy. I sat at the back of the bus, next to some really arrogant British girl who didn't even make small talk. We stopped over at Hokitika which is known for its green jade. We also used this as a supermarket stop. Went with Bronwyn to the grocery. got back to the bus and spent the rest of the journey eating a veg salad. We stopped by at this weird place - they make Possum pies. It was cold, wet and damp. There was a boring movie on I think deer poaching, and they had a wild pig as well as some possums in cages. The place smelt bad. 

We cont`d on to Franz Josef. It got a bit sunny from this point onwards. Reached FJ around 2pm. Our first stop was to book the glacier ride for the next day. Had lunch (soup) and went to check email. Went for a walk around the town, and took a little walk in the forest leading upto the glacier. Decent enough walk. At least helped kil time. I`d still not made any good friends on the tour. But was getting used to seeing things on my own. Infact I liked this idea much more.

Got back to the hostel. Roommates for tonight were Paul, Will and that awful Cannuck f*ckwit Ben. Slept in early again, around 11pm. Slept like a log. The hostel was clean and thank God for hot water! The hostel was however noisy as the Kiwi Experience bus people were also staying there.

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Thursday, November 17th

Got up early and went to the "Glacier Guides" centre for the glacier trek. We wore those trekking uniforms and headed up to the glacier. It was quite elaborate. A bus takes u to a certain point and from there you walk. We had a guide. We were about 25. This was fun. We were given instructions, and the walk to the glacier itself takes about an hour. Not to mention more time spent in wearing those shoes, the ice talons, etc.

The trek itself was amazing! I`d never even dreamed I would one day be trekking on a glacier. It was a bit scary at times. Especially when we had to walk over those makeshift wooden bridges. But what`s really impressive is the phenomenon of a glacier. I mean, HOW is it possible to have a full blown glacier in the middle of a rainforest?! You cannot believe this is possible by the laws of nature, but that`s what NZ is all about - defying nature!

We stopped for a food brk atop the glacier and went walking in another route on the way back. This part of the journey was more interesting. You walked through glacier caves, narrow pathyways, very dangerous and steep. We finished the trek by 2pm, started our descent and walk back to the bus. I couldn't but help myself taking a gazillion pics on my way back. And of what you ask? Fungus! You know, the funny thing about NZ, even the fungi that grows is so damn picturesque. It colours the stones orange, some combo I've never seen before (see the picture if you don't believe me!) .

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Today just a short blog, partly because I have some sick adventures to share with you tomorrow. I hiked the Franz Josef glacier today. A full day hike, getting up at six, present at 8:15, walk/climb to five in the afternoon. I though it would be tough, but funnily enough I felt quite fit at the end of the afternoon. I booked the full day tour with Franz Josef Glacier Guides, the main guiding company in Franz. Our guide was a 30 something marine biologist with a passion for mountaineering. Slightly odd combination, yessir. He was a cool guy though, with lots of stories to tell.

We couldn't had a better day to do our hike: bright blue skies, lovely temprature and not too much wind, just perfect. We started out early, and after a short walk to the base of the glacier we split into six groups, each representing a fitness level. I was in the second one, but later realized I should've opted for the first one; even though it was the second fastest group, we stood around a lot, waiting for everyone to catch up. The scenery made up fot it though. First we hiked to the face (the lower part) of the glacier, then upwards. The beginning was mainly black ice, mixed with rocks that had been transported down the mountain side ages ago by the moving ice. After a while we came to the white, and then blue ice; simply amazing. There were a lot of caves, crevices, tunnels and bridges along the way, which added to the adventure part of our hike. At lunchtime we came at some big crevices, which were amazing to walk through. Some were only half a meter wide, tops, so that you had to place your feet in front of each other and shuffle forward. You couldn't bring your backfoot past your front one, as their simply was no room to do that, and you could hurt yourself with the spikes under our shoes.

After the crevices we hiked on some 'waves'. Large chunks of glacier torn apart under pressure creating big gaps in between them. That took a long while, as there were some slow people in the group. I would have liked to have some more freedom, but unfortunately I wasn't allowed to join the first group. Minus the boring parts spent waiting on other members of the group, I had a great time, definetely worth the money. You get some professional gear and a pro guide who knows what's safe and what's not. I'll put a lot of video's and photo's on my blog tomorrow of a new adventure, but for now, enjoy the glacier pics.

Ciao, Ape and Nic

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We felt that some of mr Balls complaints were very unjustified and feel we should submit our responce sent to mr ball when he oraginally complained to us. Dear Mr Ball, I'm writing to express our apologies for your unhappy experience you described in your letter, and to thank you for bringing this to our attention. It is our aim at the rainforest to provide every guest with the highest standard of service and customer care and we deeply regret that this wasn't achieved in your case. I have investigated the claims that you have made, and have since implemented new systems to ensure this doesn't happen again. The point you made about being unable to check in on arrival and that you had stated on your internet booking form you would be arriving at 12noon has illustrated to us a problem that we were unaware of. We have since contacted the company that operates our web site and asked them to amend this to 2pm at the earliest, which is standard arrival time in the majority of accommodation within New Zealand. We have also completely revamped our cleaning procedures so that our housekeeping staff are aware of any early arrivals so that those rooms can be focused on first. I was surprised to learn that you had an unfriendly welcome from our reception staff. This is defiantly out of character as we have aimed to employ a team of "personalities" who usually get comments regarding the way they made our guests feel so welcome and at home. I have had a meeting with all our front line staff and I can only put this down to a "bad day" maybe they were also feeling the effect of all that rain you described. I'm constantly monitoring their performance to ensure guests enjoyment and am usually very proud of the service they give. To the points you raised regarding the room type your were allocated, again I apologies that the staff hadn't picked up on the fact there was 3 guests staying. We had originally allocated a room from the internet booking form which you had booked for 1 person. (I have attached the booking from from the internet for you to see.) The 1st room they gave you, room 20, was the Lodge option you choose, exactly as had been requested. I feel you may have mistaken looks of disgust form the reception girls as you mentioned, for looks of panic as they now had to find another room for the guests who were due to go into the 2nd room you were given. These guests had requested 2 separate beds. As you know it was an extremely busy time for the town and not an easy task. However this was not your problem and I feel the reception staff did the right thing in being able to juggle the bookings to give everyone what they wanted. I don't feel that the reception staff were in the wrong for showing you the booking folder as this is accurate and this was now creating them with a big problem. I also understand that you were offered complimentary drinks in our bar for the delay in checking you in. The point you then bring up regarding the spa and sauna. We do have 2 spa pools on site, one is a communal spa that is free for all of our guests. the other a private spa pool that can be booked. Unfortunately during your stay the private spa was out of action and we were waiting for a spa technician to arrive to fix it. Because of our remote location this can be very frustrating to us to find qualified workers willing to travel, especially straight after the summer break. Again I apologies that we hadn't been able to fix it during your stay. Your comments regarding the cleanliness of the sauna have upset me that you were to find such unpleasant things in our sauna. It is expected from our housekeeping team that they clean it on a daily basis and obviously this wasn't done. I have since expressed to them the importance of this and am making sure it is done everyday. However I feel your comments regarding the "airplane-toilet-sized Sauna and the way you describe our reception staff as having a very obnoxious manner when checking the temperature as a bit too much to swallow. I do understand that you weren't happy with finding a used condom and that there was a delay on checking you in but feel that towards the end of your letter you were already unhappy with our staff and have decided every action they made was to upset you and I can assure you this wasn't the case. I have also talked with Kelly, who informs me she was not made aware of your early problems regarding your check in and was only informed of what you'd found in the sauna when you spoke to her. Kelly gave you a satisfaction survey because they are very useful to us as it helps us when expressing problems to our housekeeping team. I can also assure you that had Kelly known of your other grievances she would have done all she could for you. I hope that this reply and the changes we have since made will go a little way towards improving your opinion of the rainforest retreat. Please feel free to phone me if there is anything further I can do. Yours Sincerely Oscar Morgan, Joint Manager, Rainforest Retreat. Booking form we recieved from you Booking Details Customer Name: Alison F Customer Email: Reference: TF21310 Arrival Time: 12:00 Hostel Name: RainForest Retreat Room Type: Tree Lodge Private Ensuite Arrival Date: January 07, 2008 Departure Date: January 08, 2008 Number Of Nights: 1 Number of people: 1 Number of rooms: 1 Date of sale: December 01, 2007 at 01:31 Booking Value: NZD $209.00 Amount Paid online NZD $28.40 Amount to pay on arrival NZD $188.10 Source of sale: RainForest Retreat CRP

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Today we went Glacier Hiking at Franz Josef Glacier! But first some interesting facts:

·         It takes 50 years for the Glacier to move from the top of the mountain 8 miles down to the bottom

·         This glacier is one of the 3 in the world that ends in a semi-tropical rainforest!

·         Unlike the majority of the world’s glaciers, the Franz Josef Glacier is not regressing due to Global Warming. Actually it is advancing. This is due to the air blowing over hot Australia (which may someday heat and burn up!) across the Tasman sea picking up moisture then dropping it on the mountains in New Zealand as Snow. So what you have here is a reverse global warming. While Australia will be getting hotter, New Zealand will be getting colder!

   Andrew and I got our gear, added spikes to our boots and followed a guide into the Glacier. It was a 6 hour hike all the way to Glacier. To walk on the glacier you need to make sure your spikes are dug into the ice-toes going up, heels coming down. The guide had to stop every few feet to chip away at the ice and cut for us some steps. Our guide was a skinny little dude who could cut a step in less than 30 seconds! I thought he was a native of New Zealand, but was surprised to discover he was from a country that had no snow- Malaysia!

Once we got to the glacier we had to be extra careful to not fall into a crevice. Walking on a living glacier was quite the experience. The colors of the ice, the formations of the melting ice was a feast for our senses. 

What was striking about this whole experience was the feeling of the “ying-yang”. The contrasts of the opposites. The clash of the “differences.” The ice was freezing cold, yet were in a sub-tropical rainforest! The blue ice was a colorful contrast to the green jungle foliage all around us. The white ice looked “dead” yet it was really alive, moving a few inches each day on a journey that came to life when it melted into the fast flowing cold river..and the circle of life continues! Immortality of nature in its purest form.

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This morning I was up nice and early to do a short hike on the Franz Josef glacier. They lend you all the equipment boots, cramp-ons, and even jackets, gloves and scarves. So you can turn up in your shorts and sandals if you want to. After 1 hour of trekking over large stones we arrived at the glaciers face and put on our crampons. then it was on to the ice.

This was my first time on a glacier and it was a pretty surreal experience. The temperature at the base of Franz Josef is around 15°, and is situated in a valley that contain rain forests, so you begin to wonder how there is a glacier here in the first place. The answer is at the top of the mountain where it snows. The snow then compacts down to form the glacier which is over 700m high in places.

Hiking up the glacier was fairly easy, as there is a prepared track to follow with stairs and ropes to hold on to. The guides say as the glacier is continually melting these have to be moved and recreated on average twice a week.

Sadly the flight I had planned to the top of the glacier was canceled this afternoon due to low cloud. Plan B is to make take a flight over fox glacier tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed the weather is good.

Check out the great photos from here.

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Today we drove forever to see the Frans Joseph Glacier. We got there after hours of driving and I was feeling pretty exausted at this point. The glacier was about an hours hike away. It was pretty cool to see. It kind of looked like an ice ski slope tucked in between two rock mountains. Some parts were blue and other grey and white. I guess it had receded a lot in the last few years. It was crazy to see the point where the glacier was in the 1700 and how small it is now. It was literally miles smaller than it had been previously. The water running out of it is ice cold. I’m glad I saw the glacier but by the time we got back to the car (for another 4 hour drive) I was really ready to be down. We stayed in Greymouth (a nothing town) for the night before driving back to Nelson in the morning where I would then catch my flight to Auckland that afternoon.

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This review serves to detail my experience with Rainforest Retreat on the night of 7/1/2008. You will find the customer service we received was completely inexcusable and the overall stay was laughable at best. Two travel companions and I made our reservation for three people on the night of 7/1/08, which was confirmed by comestay@rainforestretreat.co.nz on 1/12/07. Our plan was to make our last night on our New Zealand trip an enjoyable one by staying at what is marketed as a place “…with outstanding facilities to make your stay a truly memorable time.” Our stay truly was a memorable time… The day of 7/1/08 was the only day on our trip with heavy rain. We drove seven hours that day from Mt. Cook to Franz Josef. With the inclement weather hindering much exploring, we figured we made the right choice to stay in a top-end accommodation and decided we could relax in our room and enjoy the facilities (hot tub and sauna). The optimism we were filling ourselves with quickly turned to dismay after our arrival. We arrived at 12:45pm and the three of us went to reception to check-in. The two young women at reception were very unwelcoming and promptly told us that check-in is at 2:00pm and we would have to come back. When we originally made the booking there was an option for the user to input the time they would arrive, we entered 12:00pm. The receptionists seemed indifferent to our arrival and were rather unhelpful to not check to see if our room was ready. Our group returned at 2:20pm to check-in and we subsequently were met with the same unfriendly attitude from the two receptionists. One of the receptionists claimed her computer was not working and that she was unable to contact the maids to see if our room was ready. She gave us our key and told us to wait ten minutes before going to our room to see if the maids were done. Is this how their staff is trained to treat customers? The walk from the front desk to the room is less than a five minute return walk, she could easily have done this herself and have the other receptionist cover her. After waiting in our car for ten minutes to escape the rain, we went to check Room 20 (where we were assigned) only to find the maids still cleaning and more importantly, that there was only one double bed. The room did not appear to be the “lodge” option we chose either. We immediately returned to reception to inform them of this error and were instantly given an increasingly unpleasant attitude. The more unhelpful of the two young ladies exclaimed to us in an irritated manner that her screen only showed the booking for one person. She even had the nerve to turn the screen around to show us and make the accusation that we were wrong. After presenting our confirmation we had printed, she exclaimed there must be an error from whoever took the reservation. Seriously, how many times did these young ladies see the three of us together before she issued our key? It doesn’t take a genius to realize three adults will not fit on a double and that the customer should be given the benefit of the doubt. Both of the receptions gave each other looks of disgust several times before issuing our key to Room 24. We arrived in our room at 2:55pm and thankfully it was satisfactory after such an awful initial impression on this establishment. The lack of a door for the shower in the bathroom is a bit of a surprise though. After showering, you have to stand in water whenever you use the toilet or sink. This is a minor grievance though because there were still several appalling acts to come in our short stay. We hoped to put our unhappiness with the weather and Rainforest Retreat staff behind us and take advantage of the spa and sauna that were advertised to be great benefits of staying with them. We phoned reception a few minutes after 3:00pm to make a reservation as required, but were immediately disappointed to hear that the spa was broken and an electrician was needed. We were told the sauna was still available, but would be $3 per person. In my opinion, they should make the sauna free if the spa is broken. Anyway, the front desk told us that the sauna was free at 3:30pm and we booked it. The three of us arrived at reception at 3:30pm (now our fourth time there) and were asked in a condescending tone if we had called ahead to make a booking for the sauna. One of the young women told us the sauna takes thirty minutes to warm up and it was only turned on a few minutes ago. Needless to say, we weren’t informed of this before we came to reception. The young lady said she would go check the temperature (in a very obnoxious manner), but upon returning she informed us that it would be at least fifteen more minutes till it would be warm enough. We decided to take a short walk to town and back, but upon our return would be the worst experience I’ve ever had at a motel. At 3:50pm I went into reception and paid our $9. The receptionist went to check the sauna temperature again (her third visit from what I understand- once to turn it on, twice to check) and upon returning, told us the temperature was almost there, but we can go in anyway. Water was given to us for the steam, and I had to return a minute later because she had not handed us towels. When the three of us entered the sauna, our first impression is that instead of calling it a “Scandinavian Sauna” they might want to be more accurate about the interior by calling it an “Airplane-Toilet-Sized Sauna.” The temperature was by no means warm at that point and likely needed another twenty minutes. You can imagine our horror when we were about to sit down and saw a USED CONDOM AND WRAPPER lying in plain-sight on the bench in there! The sauna is tiny and the receptionist had been in there at least three times within the previous 45 minutes. How did she or the cleaning crew not spot this wrinkly rubber on the bench?? You can probably imagine how fast I returned to reception to voice my discontent. The response the staff gave me included a look of disgust and “Really?” They offered no apology, only the return of our $9 after I promptly informed them of a need for a refund. Another member of our party asked to speak with the manager on duty, and we were told she was on the phone and would have to wait. The manager, Kelly, came out after five minutes and asked how she could help. My friend told her of our complete disappointment with the service we had received explaining what happened at check-in and in the sauna. To our shock, Kelly smirked and told us to write down our grievance on a satisfaction survey she supplied to us (also found in the room). She said that any feedback given is helpful, but failed to offer any apology for the facilities, the staff, and how we were treated. Thankfully, our short conversation with Kelly is the last interaction we had with any of the Rainforest Retreat staff. We woke early the next morning and left town to catch our flight out of New Zealand. Great last impression we had. If there had been more vacancies in town we would have quickly demanded a refund after finding the used condom in the sauna, but we weren’t sure and just wanted to have a stiff drink by that point. I hope major changes are made there immediately to make up for the many shortcomings we experienced. In my opinion, Do not stay there!

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We got up early and walked to the Glacier tour group to get kitted out with raincoat, waterproof overtrousers, hats, gloves, socks, boots and crampons. We then took a bus to the base of the glacier and walked beyond the protective wire and walked half an hour to the base of the glacier. Here we split into 2 groups based on ability, put on crampons and started tramping up the dirty, rocky edge of the glacier. The further we got up, the more men were out cutting steps into the slopes of the glacier. Paths are cut and re-cut every day following the day and night's weather, and new main paths are changed once a fortnight or so.

After only half an hour I already had blisters at the back of my heel from climbing and stepping up steep slopes, and had to stop for some first aid - apparently you shouldn't wear cotton socks under wool socks! Unfortunately, the damage was already done and the following 2 hours of climbing became more and more painful. It was also pretty hard going even without blisters, and we had very few 'breather' stops. I was close to pulling out and begging to return knowing that I still had 4 or so hours to walk, but I pushed on, as I could see how far we already were from the glacier face and I couldn't imagine how they would be able to soeperate me from the group.

Eventually we stopped for lunch and the tour guide was radioed by the less able group because one woman had had a panic attack and wanted to pull out so the whole group had to return. He left us to eat but when he returned he and my group were scathing about the stupidity of someone who aggreed to go on a glacier walk and then ruined the experience for everyone. I shut up and kept my head down, pleased I hadn&t said anything earlier! LIke I have said before 'Australasians are outdoorsy people'!

The second half of the day was a lot more fun, if a lot wetter as we were squeezing and sliding through tiny glacier cracks and climbing and more often descending steep slopes using the 'bananarama' steps (sideways steps up the cut ice steps) which was a lot more comfortable. The glacier cracks are caused by the top of the glacier tipping over the top of the under-side ice. Some of these cracks are 150m deep and more! Finally we started descending the glacier and returned, hot and sweaty to the bus to be driven home.

Our first stop was at the hostel bar for happy hour and then to the spa pool in the garden, which was deliciously hot and relaxing. We met a bloke who had also hiked the Tongariro volcano but he did the circular trek round the base and camped for 4 days but got caught in a 4 hour ice storm and got frostbite! After an hour or so we dressed and went down to a local bar for a bit and then to bed after some pizza and some drinks.

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I was meant to get up and do bone carving this morning but sadly I hadn't set an alarm and I woke up still drunk about 20 mins late and the bloke had already been and gone. So we mooched around all morning and enjoyed our unusually late check-out time of midday. After that we continued on the west coast road, which eventually turns into the Glacier Highway, stopping only to buy food, stop at a river and buy Greenstone, seeing as the west coast is the Greenstone (or Jade) region of New Zealand. Only 5 Maori familes are permitted to sell it and there are 3 types. The most expensive is flecked with black, and there are a number of popular designs including whale tail, fish hook and Tanifer.

So the legend has it that the Taniwha (pronounced tanifah) is a river demon; a taniwha was in love with the chief's wife and kidnapped her. To avoid being caught he dived in the river and hid, not realising that humans cannot breathe under water and so the chief's wide died. The chief pursued the tanifer up and down the country in the riverways and finally trapped him in lake Tai Poutini. While he decided what to do with the taniwha, the chief grieved the loss of his wife and the tears he cried stained the Greenstone with the black flecks. He then decided to curse the taniwha so that he could never be released from the river until the last piece of Greenstone was about to leave New Zealand, whereby the curse would lift and the tanifer would have to go and collect all the pieces together again and bring them back.

The bridges over many of the rivers are extremely narrow and there is room for one vehicle only going in either direction. One particular bridge also passes very close to a rock face and the swing into the bridge means it has earned the name 'The Can Opener' as so many bus drivers have sheared their buses trying to enter the bridge at the wrong angle. The river we stopped at was an amazing blue colour, caused by the fine precipitation of minerals in the water. Also there is much gold in the water and in the mud around but it is extremely fine, as much New Zealand gold is. Where the minerals flow into the sea there are stunning algal blooms. We passed through a few old gold mining towns too; towns which had once supported 20,000 people, but which now are home to only 60, such as the town of Ross.

We arrived finally at Franz Josef and checked into the Rainforest Retreat, our home for the next couple of days. We are walking up the glacier tomorrow on a 7hr trek so we spent the evening preparing lunches, packing day bags and getting our things in order.

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The next morning was an early start which nobody really wanted but people got up. Many people were still in costume and it turned out some of them who had wanted to do the sky dive were going to have to go straight there to do it so Lorcan went up as an Umpa Lumpa and Clara still as a leopard.

On the bus people were still quite drink and we went to a Bushmans Museum. Here we got to watch one of the funniest videos ever about Kiwis hunting deer and jumping from helicopters on to them to capture them. it was filmed in a completely outrageous way and had to be seen. After this someone fed a pig, and the pig was sick on him. In the cafe I bought myself some possum pie. Possum doesnt have much flavour but it has the texture of stewing beef, it went down.

On the coach I took charge of the music being played on the bus and had a microphone forced on me to sing lady in red. I was far better than that guy who won Star's in Their Eye's a few years ago and won a standing ovation.

Things took a turn for the worse after this as the alcohol wore off and it was an incredibly long journey which feautres another reflection lake which was not reflective and lots of winding roads.

Franz Josef is only a small little town at the base of a glacier and I signed up to do the full day walk on it. The next morning i woke up with time to spare and decided to phone home. I got the time wrong that the glacier walk started and had to sprint there and rush through getting all my kit on. Walked to the base of the glacier and quickly remembered that I hated walking and unhappy camping trips to the peak district came flashing back. To make matters worse it started to rain, that fine rain that cuts straight through you. Visibilitiy was poor and everything was wet and I got even more miserable. We sat and ate lunch in the rain, and the ham that I had bought was horrible so I just had mayonaisse sandwhiches. I climbed through crevaces, up ice and through small holes. Once we got to the top of where we were going it cleared up and looked very beautiful and made the descent easier. The hot choclate back at the centre was much appreciated.

That night had a party in our room then went to the bar in the hostel for a bit of a boogie and had a good time and then came back to our room to party again to the early hours.

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