I made it to New Zealand, eventually. Leaving drinks were actually so good I didn't make my flight the next morning. So I have learnt from my experience that drinking the night before flying is a bad idea, as is going to sleep after drinking at 5am when you need to be awake at 6am. Matters not after crying to the Qantas lady on the phone she changed my flights to the next day, and thanks to mum being a genius detective on the internet I had someone to pick me up at the airport on the correct day!
I arrived in Christchurch, in desperate need of a cup of coffee a good meal and a sleep. Laraine, wonderful laraine, gave me all of these and took me to the station the next day. I got the TranzAlpline train across the south island into Greymouth. Which i have been told does not offer much. The train was awesome, the scenery incredible, the only thing which ruined it a little was the Yank sitting across from me who was determined to talk to me for the entire 4 and a half hours! I managed to then get the connecting coach to Franz Josef, where i would catch up with Laura and Danny.

The journey was again, i may say this a lot just incredible, in fact you will probably get bored of the photos and me telling you about the views very soon! But i made it to the town near the glacier and found Laura and Danny soaking in the hot tub, a common feature in the hostels here... Think I am going to like it! We all caught up, had a lovely meal out and then I went to bed ridiculously early.

The day of the Glacier hike. I was actually really worried about my fitness as it is pretty much nil, especially as it was a full day hike and I think I should have mentioned that i broke my ankle only 3months prior, but they might not have let me do it so i kept quiet! Oops. The weather had been awful and cold the previous day, but today the sky was clear and we were all really excited. We had to get all of our stuff together, boots, jackets, crampons, a fetching bum bag and hat and gloves, which looked like they needed string and should go through the arms of the anorak and we were on our way to the base of the glacier. There were a lot of people doing the hike in the morning we all broke off into small groups. It took about an hour to get thew the start of the glacier, by which time were we bloody hot and had shed about 3 layers. This changed as soon as we stepped on, cleary being surrounded by ice is very cold. I did find out some interesting facts about the glacier though.

Fact 1: The glacier is about 18km long

Fact 2: The top of the glacier moves at a rate of about 10m a day.

Fact 3: The length of the glacier changes depending on the temperature of the earth, of course, this glacier is now advancing at a rate of about 70cm a day.

Can't remember any more facts, will try and update when I can.

We climbed to just over half way up the glacier, it was just awesome. In order to get up there we had to use our ice things, technical i know, to create our own steps up and down the crevices. We also got to go through ice tunnels and slide along ice walls, which although i enjoyed all I could think about was the ice squashing me and was rather relieved to have made it out. we stopped for lunch at the top, with some breathtaking views. Then began the decent. It was all going well and we were moving fast, until out guide tells us we have actually taken the wrong route and we managed to add another hour and a half to the hike, none of us were that impressed, all now very tired and had seen enough ice to last a lifetime. We did however have a good pint and hot tub to return too so was not all that bad.

The next day i got the magic bus for the first time, it was an experience, i have realised that i am a grumpy old woman already set in my ways and i do not like the bus driver talking over the mic telling me his life story I would rather read my book and get to where i want to go! Mum there you go i have learnt something about myself, this trip has been worth it! hehe

We arrived in a place called Wanaka, weather still great the place was lovely, however all we managed to do there was Happy hour in a lake side bar. Next day we tried to go to puzzling World but walked about 2kms in the wrong direction. So jumped on the bus and we are now in Queenstown. I love Queenstown, could spend a lot more time here! Will tell you more when I leave.