Our next leg of the trip involved working our way up the west coast of the south island, starting with the famous glaciers, Fox and Franz Joseph. We left Wanaka just after lunch.

We got to Fox Glacier first, just before sunset, so we did a quick walk to get a view of the terminal face of the glacier. We would have liked to spend more time there, but with sundown imminent, we needed to find a place to stay. We found a holiday park in Fox not far from the glacier, and we made a meal of pan-seared lamb chops we bought on sale in Wanaka. It was great. After dinner, we walked around the tiny main strip of the alpine town of Fox and found a good local place to hang out the rest of the night.

The sounds of keas, the native New Zealand parrot, woke us up in the morning, but we were ready for an early start as we were meeting our friends Melody and Jeff in Hokitika, around 2 hours north of Fox. We still had a morning hike in Fox and the Franz Joseph glacier to do before we could take off, so we kicked it in gear.

We began the day with a superb hike around Lake Matheson, whose mirror-like surface reflected an already fabulous view of Mt. Tasman and Mt. Cook. These are the Southern Alps in all their glory. We then drove 25 km north through winding mountain roads to Franz Joseph, where we hiked to a viewpoint of the glacier. With time running short, we jumped in the car for the two-hour drive to meet Melody and Jeff in a town called Rimu, just outside Hokitika.

Melody and Jeff were on the front side of a 12-day vacation in New Zealand. Their itinerary had them coming south down the West Coast and we were working our way north, so the town of Hokitika ended up being a perfect place to intersect. We met them at their lodge, and they popped into our camper for some wine. They brought us a bottle of Reisling from the winery where they stayed in Nelson, which was super nice of them. Oh, and if you are reading this Melody and Jeff, thanks for the road trip tunes, too!

We caught up for a while, and then we headed out to a great local pub for some microbrews, dinner, and local vibe. I tried the local delicacy, whitebait, which are whole tiny white fish mixed with egg and seasoning and fried up. We had some fun with the local firefighters before we took off to see glow worms in a glow worm dell near the pub that the owner if the lodge told Jeff about. Jeff got directions and a map from the bartender, who no one could understand save Jeff. The bartender spoke English, I think, but his Kiwi accent was so thick that I had to stare at his lips and concentrate with all my might to try to make out every third word and fill in the blanks. Apparently, however, Jeff, had installed Kiwi Brogue Protocol 1.0 before he left the US, so he was good to go.

The glow worms were pretty cool. They are actually the larvae of a gnat, and they hang from small threads and emit a tiny bluish light to attract bugs. Bugs get stuck in the threads, and whammo, dinner is served. We really had to work at finding the glow worm dell, since there was only a small unlit marker on the side of the road to indicate its location, and then we had to step down into a ditch and through a hole to get to the glow worms. We stood admiring the worms, until Melody dropped the word "bioluminescence" on us. You can take the girl away from the ACS, but you can't take the ACS out of the girl.

The next day, Melody and Jeff were going to Fox Glacier for a heli-hike, a helicopter ride over the mountains and glaciers with a glacier landing and subsequent two-hour hike. Because of how high the helicopter can get, you can see ice formations with a heli-hike that you can't see with the typical guided hike on the glacier. Melody and Jeff invited us to join them, and at the last minute we agreed.

As we drove from Rimu to Fox, we noticed the clouds getting more and more ominous, and when we arrived in Fox, the mountains had tufts of white clinging to them in all directions and the skies were pretty gray. Just as Melody boarded the shuttle to go to the helicopters, we got word that the flight was cancelled.

We felt bad because this was one of the big activities that Melody and Jeff were planning to do in New Zealand, and they felt bad because we backtracked to join them. We were all bummed, but we made good use of the time, hiking to the terminal face of the glacier and then doing the Lake Matheson hike again to show them the views. I was completely wiped out due to our freezing cold camper night and a lack of sleep, so I just sacked out in the back of their car during the hike. Suckers! You guys get all sweaty while I snooze.

When they came back, I felt refreshed, and they were ready for a drink, so we hit two different places, one cafe and one pub, for happy hour(s). The pub we landed at was fun, and we wrapped up the day with some frosty local microbrews on tap, a roaring fire, and good conversation. Melody and Jeff were off to their next stop further south, so we said goodbye just before dinner. We were sad to see them go. It was so good to see friends from home and catch up. We miss everyone!

Buoyed from their visit, we whipped up a quick dinner in the parking lot. It's nice having a camper! Then we cleaned up and took off for the post-sunset drive back to Hokitika.