We arrived at the Glaciers late and rushed off to book our Glaciers trek. No spots on tomorrow so had to book for early the next day. We are getting used to early morning walks to wake us up.

The next morning we decided to do some little walks around the Glacier. This didn't turn out as expected the first walk was not the one we thought it was and did not take very long at all. It took us to Wombat lake but you could not walk around it as we had expected. So after an hour we were back where we started and spotted the sign for the walk we had planned to do across the road. This walk we thought was a loop hence the name Douglas loop walk but no in same old New Zealand fashion we had to come back on the same path. It did take us to some stunning views of the Glaciers but we were sure we would see better tomorrow. After getting to the end of the path we started to panic as we were susposed to be back in town to do Quad biking in little over an hour and that was how long back the walk should have taken. Due to this we got more exercise than we bargained for as we had to run most of the path even the uphill parts but we did get back in plenty of time even with some to spare for lunch.

The Quad biking was great fun. We should have had a quad each though but we have to save on money some where. The girl in front of us at the beginning was not having as much fun steering it and ended up digging herself deep into the mud. Our guide came and duitfully rescued her only to get stuck in even deeper mud on his way back to the front. We were then all called on to push him out as a consequence I got a boot full of mud and it looked like a few others were about to fall in to the mud. I got told I was not competing in the x games and was a hoon. It is true I would have loved to go faster but we had to stay behind each other. Aaron wasn't mush better then me. We deffinately were the ones making the most splashes as we speeded through the mud and rivers. I am glad I let Aaron steer through the forest as that wasn't my best skill as I would have probably gone too fast and bashed into a tree. Near the end Aaron almost drove us into a ditch but quickly recovered without bringing too much attention to ourselves. An activity to be repeated. We finished the day by going for a walk around the Fox Glaciers. It turned out to be one with rivers to wade through I got my sandals that wet I should have just done it bare feet. Aaron was a little more graceful than me. When we got to the end the views of the Glaciers were good and again well worth the walk. Did another walk around a lake as promised great reflections of the mountains of course disapointed but another nice walk. After all that exercise we retired for the day with a drink parked right outside the Glaciers office so we had no excuses for not getting there in time in the morning.

The next day we set off for our walk up the glacier all kitted up. Aaron was worried though that he hadn't recieved a pick axe but it was okay he would have plenty of chance to play later. After an hour we got to the foot of the glacier and prepared ourselves by putting on our crampons. This turned out to be more of a challenge than expected for Aaron even though they fastened exactly like his belt. They felt strange walking on the rocks but needed as soon as we hit the ice. Even though we were in the top group we started our slow ascent. It took time to get up as we had to keep stopping for our guide to pick axe steps. We decided we should have gone for the more adventurous option of ice climbing. There is always next time. When we got up to the blue ice we saw some great caves and climbed through lots of very thin chasms. Aaron was the only one out of 28 people including the guides to climb through a very thin underground ice hole that was deep with water. He made it through with a few cuts and very wet but he loved it. Aaron had a go at carving the steps but after one and half he gave up and left the exhausting work to the experts.

Once off the ice we set of for Greymouth where we rested for the night.