Saturday 22nd January Franz Josef to Makarora We headed off this morning to our next destination, Makarora a stopping off point on route to Queenstown.After a short drive, we stopped for a walk at LakeMatheson.LakeMatheson is 5km west of Fox Glacier township and is famous for reflecting a near perfect image of Mount Cook.At one point we stopped for a group photo and got this poor guy to take the same photo with about 10 different cameras!!! We stopped at va...

Thursday 21st January Franz Josef Glacier Although 140 glaciers flow from the Southern Alps, only Franz Josef and Fox glaciers reach the lower rainforests (flowing down to just 250m above sea level) and this is what makes them so accessible.Franz Josef is also a "dynamic" glacier which means it is still growing and receding - it can move as much as 10cm a day and is growing due to the 30-40 metres of snowfall each winter. There are 3 options for g...

Wednesday 20th January Christchurch to Franz Josef As we left Christchurch this morning, we were joined by 5 more passengers who are doing the South Island only tour; Benn and Kim from Sydney, Brian from Korea, Alex from Crete (but lives in Melbourne) and Katga from Switzerland.As Jana and Camilla have now left us, there are now 16 of us on the bus. On route we stopped in Hokitika for lunch and to try and get our SLR camera fixed - it hasn't worked since we...

Wednesday 19th January Hanmer Springs to Christchurch (via Kaikoura) We sadly left our little house after breakfast today and headed to Kaikoura on route to Christchurch.Overlooked by a range of snow covered mountains, the Kaikoura region first attracted Maori who came to harvest its abundant seafood.The town gets its name from the Maori words for food (kai) and crayfish (koura). We had opted not to pay for any of the activities today and Wozza dropped us o...

Tuesday 18th January Abel Tasman - Hanmer Springs It was pouring with rain when we woke this morning but we set off early passing through 2 more national parks on route to Hanmer Springs.We stopped for walks at several places along the way but with low cloud and rain, there was little to see and little enthusiasm to get off the bus. We passed through the Kahurangi and Nelson national parks which boast fabulous scenery but we saw little of it through the rai...