Hello.

Well we left Lake Mahanapua in the morning wi8th a few people feeling quite rough from the party the night before. Shortly after we set off we stopped at this weird little cafe which had a museum in, which consisted of watching a video about deer hunting and then walking around in a small circle to look at the eels which we couldnt see lol and the possums. After doing that we had breakfast there and then set off to Franz Josef, which has about 310 days of rain a year or something so as you can guess it was raining when we got there and the whole time we were there lol.

Once in Franz Josef we went staight to the glacier hiking place, where we paid for our hike, me and kev originally were going to do the half day but after being told by someone else it was rubbish we decided to do the full day, so we booked that with the hot pools as you go them half price with your hike and then headed off to our hostel, which was called the rainforest retreat. We didnt really do much for the rest of the day we were there as there wasnt alot to do so we ended up falling alseep for a while and then going on down to the monsoon bar where there was a draw and prizes where giving out. Me and kev didnt win anything tho :(.

So the next day we got up early and headed down to the hiking place, where we got told there was an hour delay on our hike a the weather was so bad they were waiting on confirmation to see if it was going ahead or not. After an hour the hike was going ahead after all and we got giving all our waterproof clothes, boots and crampons. We eventually started our walk at 10 30. there was an hour walk to the base of the glacier where we had to cross a river which i nearly got swept away with going there and back lol then we had to put our crampons on and take a half hour walk to the ice as the first part of the glacier was covered in rocks from an earthquake or storm they had a few years ago. Me and kev went in the middle group and where pretty much behind the fastest walking group the whole way so we all got ot go back together, but we were glad we didn go in the slowest group as they ended up coming back an hour after us so they must have been walking back in he dark lol.

The glacier hiking was really good tho, we got to go through a few ice tunnels and walked through loads of cravasis, it was absoloutly freezing and rained the whole day but you didnt really notice it to much as you kept warm from the walking and climbing and the rain i think you just got used to lol. We got loads of pictures of us which we have put on so you can see the tunnels and things we went through. On the way back everyone just wanted to get in the warm i think and after treading carefully on the way trying to avoid puddles and not get our feet wet on the way there everyone was stomping through the puddles and streams i fell down a big hole up to my knee lol the same one kev fell in on the way there but after having a big puddle in my boot from the stream anyway it didnt really matter lol.

When we got back to the hiking place we gave all our gear in and they gave us a hot chocolate which was definitly needed lol. Me and kev stopped in the shop on the way back and got some food for dinner and then we went straight to the hot pools after dropping the food back and getting our swimming stuff. The hot pools where lovely, one was 36 degrees the other 38 and 40, so we all started off in the 36 degrees one and made our way up 40 degrees was a bit to hot so we spent most of our time in the 38. We probably never spent as long as what we should have done in them and left slightly too soon as we were hungry lol and tired, so we went back and made dinner before going to bed.

The next couple of days we had in Franz Josef we didnt really do anything, mostly because it didnt stop raining so we didnt do any of the other walks you could do and just chilled out, got our washing up together and went on the internet most of the time.

We got our bus out very early on saturday morning and made our way to Wanaka, which i will tell you about in our next blog, love you loads see you soon, nope not long now and we will be home we cant wait to see everyone, we get home on the 20th october love you lots xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx