Sooo after wasting our time in Westport, we headed straight down the west coast to Franz Josef. Nearly every road trip we've been on in New Zealand has been full of amazing scenery, and this one was no exception. We were driving for about 5 hours, stopping now and then for pictures along the coast and through the mountains/rivers/lakes.

We arrived in Franz Josef early in the evening, and stayed at Montrose Backpackers. We decided to explore the small town, which is really just a series of connecting streets with a couple of bars and shops. We met a few people in town that we'd seen in previous hostels across the country, going back as far as Taupo. Generally people were doing the same thing as us: travelling down New Zealand from Auckland towards Christchurch in cars, on coaches and in big travel groups like the Kiwi Experience.

We had been told in Fiji that climbing a glacier in Franz Josef was a must do activity, and when we arrived at the hostel we were told exactly the same, so we went to the booking office and booked an all day (8 hour) hike up the Franz Josef glacier for the next morning, costing $140 each. There was an option to do a Heli-lift up the glacier, which would have been amazing, but was twice as expensive. Anyway, its better to say we climbed up it rather than got a lift lol!

We did the hike at 9.15am, and were kitted out with some pretty impressive (lol) gear for the mountain. We were given a jacket, overtrousers, socks, gloves, hats, boots and CRAMPONS (boot spikes). We looked the shizzle. Anyway a bus took us 10 minutes up the road to a national park, where we walked in a group of about 33 for about 45 minutes to the bottom of the glacier. We were then divided into smaller groups based on ability. Naturally we were all in the top group, being well trained athletes, and as usual we picked up the sport almost instantaneously.

Our guide had been hiking up glaciers for like 14 years or something stupid lol so we were in good hands. It was pretty much a constantly moving treck up chiseled ice steps and scarily narrow crevasses, stopping every few hours for something to eat. Our guide, AJ, was carrying an ice pick which he used to make steps for us out of huge blocks of ice, without which we wouldn't have been able to climb up the glacier. The views from the glacier were amazing, as you'll be able to see from the pictures. The hike down was a lot more boring than the hike up, but was fun nevertheless.

After a hard day of glacier climbing we were pretty tired, so we decided to start drinking to relax. This relaxed drinking became a bit of a party lol and we headed to the blue ice bar for happy hour. After a couple of frothy bevvies, Alex decided to take the bar challenge: do the worst shot in the world. The aim of the challenge was to do a shot and then swill it around in your mouth, gargle it, swill it, gargle it then swallow. The record apparently was 8. Alex managed 1. woohoo! Ben soon found out why Alex could only do one, being in that drunken state when you feel like you can do anything, and had a go at the challenge. The shot consisted of a hell of a lot of chilli, tobasco sauce and absynth. There was no taste or flavour, just a horrible burning sensation. Many ice cubes were consumed to take the pain away. What a pair of massive idiots!

The main event in Franz Josef was the glacier climb, as the town is too small to do anything else really. So after a couple of nights we made the decision to power on down to Queenstown instead of Wanaka, as we were told that skiing would be a no go untill early to mid June :( with our minds set on bungy jumps and skydives, we left the little mountain town of Franz Josef and continued our travels down the country.