This morning we left the Poo Pub behind to head down to Franz Josef Village, home to a huge glacier towering over subtropical rainforest and numerous kettle lakes. We made a brief stop on the way at the Bushman Centre owned by crazy Pete. If I thought Poo Pub was weird and wild, I hadn't seen anything yet! It's a museum/café designed to educate tourists on how people used to make a living on the west coast, before tourism became the main industry. Helicopter deer recovery was popular (literally jumping out of a helicopter onto a deer and wrestling them to the ground!) as well as timber milling and possum trapping. (Possums are massive pests over here, they eat away tonnes of vegetation every single day.)

The owner seemed rather the sadistic type with a very dry sense of humour and I'm pretty sure any vegetarians would have been best waiting on the bus at this stop. It wasn't exactly a welcoming place, with signs up slating "Latte-drinking Aucklanders" (where a huge proportion of New Zealand's population resides - crazy Pete refuses to serve lattes/cappuccinos or any other fancy drinks precisely to annoy such people) as well as the English and basically anyone not born and bred on the West Coast or sharing his sense of humour. He even displays letters of complaintwritten by disgusted previous visitors, alongside his dry responses, basically telling them where to go (back to Auckland mostly.) Certainly an experience, but I was quite relieved to be getting back on the bus!

We arrived in Franz Josef early afternoon and checked into the Rainforest Retreat - a combined backpackers lodge and campsite. I can't get over how nice the rooms are! Two bunk beds per room with our own bathroom and tea and coffee making facilities - this is star treatment compared to previous hostels!

I booked a trip onto the glacier for tomorrow morning and then went for a long walk to the top on the village and towards the Glacier Valley Walk. You've probably noticed that I've run out of superlatives to describe the scenery in New Zealand (or maybe you just think I'm exaggerating...) but seriously, the views are incredible! The 4km walk from the village to the main car park for glacier treks takes you across a seriously wobbly bridge and along a huge, grey river - much of it melted ice from the glacier - called Waiho, with snow capped peaks in the distance. The track then continues through subtropical rainforest, where I have never heard so many strange bird noises! On reaching the car park, there are 5 or 6 tracks to choose from, so as it was quite late in the afternoon, I chose to do two of the shorter ones which lead to great views of the glacier itself. The first was the Sentinel Rock Walk - a very steep uphill climb to a great lookout point. It was amazing to see how much the glacier has retreated over the years - it used to go all the way to the sea, but now the foot of the glacier is around 18km away from the shore. You can see clearly how the glacier has shaped the rock on either side of the valley, an amazing example of the power of nature.

The second track was to Peter's Pool - a small, reflective, kettle lake which reflects the snow capped mountains on a sunny day. On my way back to the village, the sun shone even more brilliantly and I couldn't help turning around all the time to marvel at the view.

With only two nights here, I'm determined to make the most of it, so as soon as I got back to the lodge, I got ready for a run and ran all the way back along the valley to do the Wombat Lake Track. It was yet another awesome, undulating track through subtropical rainforest, although Wombat Lake itself was a little disappointing as it was too late in the day to see the cool mountain reflections.

I will definitely sleep well tonight!