We arrived at Franz Josef in the afternoon and went straight to the I-Site to see about booking our Skydive!! The weather was not looking good over the next week, and the pilots obviously won't go up and fly around the mountains if visibility is poor with rain and clouds etc. However the lady rung the skydive company, and said tomorrow morning is a possibility… so we told them to book us in! We were not expecting to do it that soon but were nervously excited!

The campsite we were staying at was also attached to a hostel, where the Kiwi Bus were staying. We didn't know this until we got there, but the women at I-Site told us to stay there as it was cheaper. It also had a large hot-tub, so we parked up then got straight in there, which was really nice to sit in, even though it was raining on our heads…. The water was boiling. We got chatting to a couple boys called Nathan and Shaun, from Torquay. They were on a Kiwi Bus, but had waited at Franz Josef for a few days until the weather was good enough for them to do an Ice-Hike… this was another thing we wanted to do whilst here. We got on with them really well, and agreed to meet them in Queenstown when we all got there in a few days! Reemo, and a few others we had met before arrived too and we all chilled in the hot-tub for a bit.

After relaxing for a bit, we made dinner where we bumped in to the two Swedish girls again, who had decided to stay in the same camp as us again… by coincidence. They asked us to go to the pub with them again, but we explained we had a skydive in the morning so had to be up early and didn't want to jump from 16,000 feet hungover! So that night we just watched a film and got an early night.

Today, we woke up around 8am really excited to do our skydive which we have been looking forward to for so long! The weather was not looking good but we were optimistic as it was still 2 hours until we had to actually be there, so were hoping the clouds would blow over! After getting ready, we made the 40 minute drive to the Fox Glacier, skydive place. We got out the camper and could see straight away, from the look on the guys face, it wasn't going to be good news! He said the weather wasn't good enough, and pointed at roughly where the landing area is, which was really really cloudy! But, he said come back in 2 hours and see then. We waited around the town for a couple hours, and at one point the weather cleared a lot and we got our hopes up, but within 15 minutes it was even worse than it was before! The guy said the weather is going to be really bad for at least the next 7 days, so we wouldn't be able to do the skydive or ice-hike unfortunately! So we all agreed we would move on to the next place tomorrow and come back here when the weather is looking better!

It had started really raining now, and there isn't much to do in Franz Josef when the weather is bad. So we went to some Glacier Hot Pools and chilled there for a few hours. The place had three large hot pools all different temperatures, with the hottest being 40°C. We relaxed there for a bit, before going back to make dinner and get ready to go to the onsite bar that night. 2 kiwi buses were due to arrive today so should be a few people in there.

We went to the bar with the two Swedish girls, Moa and Bim, and saw Reemo and a few other people we have met before. Nathan and Shaun were still there too, and they said they weren't allowed to do the ice hike again, so after waiting 4 days they were giving up as they were advised the weather was getting worse too.

After a couple drinks there was an announcement to say there was going to be a killer pool competition, which cost just $1 to enter, and the prize was a free bungee jump in Queenstown! After the amount of pool we played in Asia, we fancied ourselves to win a bit, and even if we didn't, was a bit of fun! In the end 30 people were involved in the competition! You take it in turns and have one shot to pot any ball… if you miss you lose a life, and when you have missed twice you lose your two lives and are out. After every shot, they give you a free alcoholic shot too!

Lloyd was the first out of the three of us to go, and was left with nothing on, pure bad luck, so missed and lost a life. Tim was next and wasn't left with much either, except for a long shot to cut into the corner pocket. He miss-hit it and missed the pocket but it bounced off the cushion, off another one and straight in a different pocket. Everyone laughed and Tim said the classic 'meant to do that' and thought to himself, 'I'm gonna win now after that' …but with 30 people it wasn't likely! Ben potted his first shot too! We done well through the next few go's, with none of us missing, whilst others were dropping out like flys! In the end, Ben finished 8th, Lloyd finished 4th and Tim was left in the final 3, which included a girl. The girl went out first, the other guy had 1 life left, then Tim was left with still his both lives, after not missing…… yet! Tim's shot was next and he had nothing on… so missed his pot and lost a life, but it also left nothing on for the other guy, so if he missed Tim had won! As it goes the guy missed so Tim had won the free bungee to do in Queenstown which is the next place we were going! It was supposed to be $180 but had only cost the $1 to enter the pool competition… result!!

After a few more drinks we headed back to sleep before heading to Queenstown the next day with a stop off at a town called Wanaka!

In Wanaka there was a place called Puzzling World we wanted to stop at. The first bit you go in is all about optical illusions. You walk through a corridor with lots of different hologram pictures which make them all look 3D. Then you enter a room where everything is at a steep angle, including the floor and ceilings. It was very strange because it makes your brain had to work out what is actually level and what isn't! For example there is a water feature, and it looks like the water is defying the laws of gravity and traveling upwards! The camera really doesn't pick it up though which is a bit weird.

Next was a room full of large heads, and the way they are designed to look 3D, the heads move and follow you around the room, even though they don't actually move in any way. It was really weird, and the only room of its kind in the world! Another room, had squares on the floor and the ceiling sloped, so if you were standing at opposite side of the room you looked different. You looked really short at one end, and really tall at the other, all because of the illusion the sloped ceiling and squares make. Have a look at the photos and you will see us pretending to go toilet the old Roman way! It looks like there are other people in the room with us because of how the wall is painted.

Then we went outside to tackle the Super-Maze, which was a large wooden maze, the first of its kind and pretty famous. It had four towers in the corners and you had to make yourself into each one and then back to the beginning! It was really hard and Tim gave up… but Lloyd and Ben managed to do it after about 30 mins. We then got back in the camper to carry on to Queenstown… which everyone says is the best place in New-Zealand!...