Hi everyone,

We boarded the bus and left the Poo pub behind and headed for Franz Joseph. Louise's cold took a turn for the worst, so she just slept on the bus hoping to pull herself together for the Glacier walk which was the main attraction at Franz Joseph. It came to the point in the bus journey where the winner of the Poo pub was announced, all the bus went quiet waiting in anticipation.........and with no further a duethe winners are............................THE FLASHER..................woooo woooo!..... it came as such a surprise i totally wasn't expecting it, caught me off guard it did haha

However there was more winners; four in total! There were only two prizes to be won and we had to have a ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS OFF to determine the ultimate winner. As soon as they said that it was obvious there was only go to be one winner it just so happens i specialize in rock paper scissors. Me nick and eddy used to play it all the time when we were younger so this should be a walk in the park. Anyway we were all standing at the front of the bus all eyes were on us, because there were four of us we had two games the winner of that game will play the winner of the other game, you know the drill. I was playing my roommate Megan, but i wasn't about to go easy on her. It was the best of three and to make things interesting i let her win the first one so i was 1 nil down but i then came back to win 2-1 to progress to the finals. Bods our bus driver was doing the commentary for the people who couldn't see at the back of the bus. It came to the final but I wasn't nervous, i was playing Choi's friend from korea..............i went one nil up as i heard a shout from the back of the bus.....GOOOOOOOO BOB!! I presumed it was Hayley giving me some encouragement, and just to make it interesting i let her win one so the game was tied one a piece and it all went down to this lastthrow of the hand, it was pretty intense stuff.......i was thinking shall i go in with fire like Joey does off friends for comical value or ATOMIC bomb that Hayley taught me but i stuck to my guns and went............. ROCK.................which totally SMASHED her scissors haha BOB wins!!! Woooo! In your face korea!!! I mean........ well played!! Bods announced me as the overall winner and i acted surprised!! It turns out the winner got a free CANYON SWING which is the biggest cliff jump in the world and it has been used on 'Jack Osbourne's adrenalin junkie' TV show worth a staggering $190..........i kind of talked myself out of any bungy type activity but since i got it for free i guess i had to do it!!

We stopped off at the Bushman's centre where Hayley did a tour and it showed you how to catch dear from helicopters and she got to see a rare white possum and did you know that every mammal in new Zealand was introduced by different colonies for example, foxes were introduced by the English just because they liked hunting. None of the mammals like cow, horses or deer were native to New Zealand and New Zealand is classed as the land of the birds. We got some pancakes at the bushman's centre which perked Louise up a little bit but she was still full of cold and sickness, maybe the worst was yet come.

We arrived in Franz Joseph midday and went straight to check into the Glacier centre where we got our briefing of what was going to happen tomorrow morning, Louise still signed up hoping to feel better after a night's sleep. Me and Hayley went straight to the supermarket after checking Louise into the hostel for some food and cold remedies. We were just about to enter the supermarket until we had to wait for two numpty's that were exiting through the entry doors haha turns out.....................it was Emma and Fiona who we did our Whitsundays trip with in Australia about a month ago. Unbelievable!! We ended up talking for ages and we agreed to meet up tomorrow after the glacier hike for a couple of beers and a catch up. This hostel was called Rain Forest Retreat and had a free 20 seater hot tub which will be ideal after a hard glacier walk tomorrow.

We got up the next morning eager for the hike; the weather wasn't looking too good and unfortunately Louise was unable to join us. Me and Hayley reported to the glacier centre for 8.30 where we got kitted out with, waterproof trousers, jacket, socks, boots, and crampons not forgetting hat and gloves. This glacier hike was regarded as the number one activity to do voted by kiwi passengers. As we approached the glacier and we were in the valley with mammoth mountains either side it was amazing there must of been over 200 hundred waterfalls cascading down the mountains either side while the glacier just sits prominent at the end and it is HUGE!!!We were roasting walking up to the glacier even though it was chucking it down but as we reached the base of the glacier we split into three different groups based on different abilities, this is where i split from Hayley. We put on our crampons and we headed onto the glacier stamping our feet making sure we had a secure footing. It was amazing; we walked deep down in the glacier and all you could see was the steep crystal blue walls either side of you that rose vertical and the gap was only a meter wide. I felt like i was in the fortress of solitude, which is Superman's home; for those of you who aren't true fans.

We had made it half way up the glacier when we heard that there had been an injury on the glacier and the helicopter was on its way so we had to move even faster to get to the top to make way for the helicopter. It was really hard to find time to eat as well because of our stupid woolly mittens, its pouring down so let's give them woolly mittens.........great idea!!! NOT! Good job I'm intelligent and i raided my medical bag for some latex gloves which i wore underneath which kept my hands dry! We weren't aloud to stop very long either because at that altitude it was freezing and when we were soaked through cause the waterproof clothes did nothing, it wouldn't be long before hyperthermia kicks in. We reached the top to let the helicopter come in and we heard it but didn't see it cause the fog was horrendous after a 2 minute stop we headed back down. The rain had started to ease off a little bit so i decided to try and take some pictures to document our trip up the glacier but with these stupid mittens i dropped the camera and it all happened in slow motion........the camera bounced on the ice and as i fell to my knees to try and pick it up it had slid down the ice with me crawling after it and just flew off the edge of the ice.......................GUTTED...............i slowly looked over the edge and there it was wedged down in the crevasse and this crevasse went down as far as the eye could see but luckily my camera got wedged so i asked the guide to retrieve it. He balanced over the crevasse with his ice pick hacking away!! While all this was happening Hayley's group were right behind thinking what's the holdup haha trust me! He finally hooked it back up and I was so over the moon, i immediately seen if it was still working and as I was fiddling I lost my footing and slipped towards the crevasse just before this boy from our group grabbed me, scary stuff; I let out a nervous laughter and as i looked up and walked past Hayley with a sheepish stare she shouted ................"are you alright Bob?"I replied "Norrrrrrrr........I'm having an absolute NIGHTMARE, I'll catch up with you at the bottom!!!"- if I survive that is!!

Anyway we made it down safe and sound and headed back to the centre for the best part of the day, the free hot chocolate, we got out of our freezing clothes and stocked up on hot chocolate and headed back for a free Jacuzzi! We were on the Glacier for about 6 hours so it was a really long day and we got in the hot tub and lost track of time as we do and ended up staying in the hot tub until 8 o'clock which was meant to be the time we were meeting Emma and Fiona. God dammit!! We jumped out got a shower and I seen to Louise, was just about to make her some jam on toast or beans on toast but no...............Louise fancied...... egg and soldiers and I've never made them before but I only went and aced it!!! best egg and soldiers ever!! Anyway lets wrap this blog up because it went on too long, probably because I went on too long about the rock paper scissors section…….oops!! That night we had a good laugh and catch up with Emma, Fiona and Luke. To summarise our day on the glacier me and Hayley both thought that it was amazing to see but the weather had kind of put a downer on it and there was a lot of waiting around while the group leader had to dig tracks and I found myself starting to get a little bored, good job I dropped my camera and nearly fell into a crevasse because it would have been a boring blog otherwise, I thought I would spice things up a little. All in all we think it would have been a totally different experience if we had decent weather and were glad Louise took the sensible option and decided to give It a miss.

T he End!!

Love Adam , Louise and Hayley xxx