Today it is all about the glaciers! After a bit more zig-zagging around the country we'd gone over Arthur's Pass and arrived at Glacier Country home to New Zealand's largest glaciers the Franz Josef Glacier and the impressive Fox Glacier. We'd spent the evening in a nearby Department of Conservation basic campsite and were up early to start exploring.

The Glaciers have been around since the last ice age and Franz Josef is currently Some 12km long. Together with the Fox Glacier, the Franz Josef Glacier is unique in descending from the mountains to less than 300 metres above sea level, amidst the greenery and lushness of a temperate rainforest.

First up was Franz Josef Glacier which was a short 60 minute walk from the car park. We wandered up to the glacier and you only really get a perspective of how big it is once you walk towards it and can see it snaking all the way down the mountain. Helicopter flights are a popular way of viewing the glaciers (not for backpackers like us!) and the helicopters become mere specks when they are high up hovering above the top of the glacier. The glacier itself is quite dirty, covered with rocks and shale which detracts from its beauty. Walking up to it is a bit like we'd imagine a lunar landscape to be like. A river runs below the glacier fed by the melting water and blocks of ice that have fallen from the glacier. Once you've seen the glacier there isn't a great deal to do, there is a safety distance of around 100m around the glacier that you need to observe if you are not with a guide, so you get close enough to see, but nowhere near close enough to touch. We regretted not joining a tour group and Gemma was especially disappointed that she didn't get to have an adventure in some ice caves, but it wasn't feasible for us to book it in advance and we'd done quite a lot of walking near Mount Cook so our enthusiasm for more walking had been curbed. Fox Glacier is much the same as Franz Josef, a bit more picturesque as the ice seems to be much cleaner and free from debris.

It was just after lunch when we'd finished at the glaciers and time to set off on the long drive to Kaikoura. Having learned our lessons from other long trips we stopped halfway in order to cook dinner in the campervan, previously we'd driven through and been too tired to cook in the dark and freezing cold, settling for sandwiches and a cup of tea (the microwave in our van only works when it is plugged into a powered site). This time we had our first taste of minted New Zealand lamb, boiled potatoes, carrots and peas, it was divine and the best meal we'd made in the campervan! Not bad on only two gas rings!