Hi everyone,

Saturday was another early start as we had a long drive to do from Queenstown down to Franz Josef, 299km in total. The weather had turned over night and as a result we had to pack the car in the pouring rain.

Basically the whole day was driving. First off we drove out of Queenstown and up to Arthur's lookout, where you got some amazing views of the valley. Then we continued over the Crown Pass which went over the Pisa Range. Came down into Wanaka and took some photos of the lake. Then we just continued along the 6. Went passed Lake Hawea and then came to the Mount Aspiring National Park where the vegetation completely changed from lakes, mountains and valleys to wet rainforest with huge powerful rivers.

Reached the haast junction around 1pm which signified that we had hit the west caost. Continued a little further up the coastal road then stopped at Lake Paringa to have our picnic. After lunch it was another couple of hours drive along the coastal road. Stopped at Bruce Bay to watch some huge waves. Then it was a long and windy drive to Franz Josef through a mixture of arable valleys and cliff roads. it rained most of the way.

Around at Glenfern Villas around 4pm. Checked into our lodge, chilled out for an hour then went down to the glacier. Packed the car and did the short 20minutes walk to the lookout point for the first views of the glacier. It was pretty awesome and you couldn't even see the top of it because it was covered by the clouds.

On the way back we stopped in the village for a quick bite to eat then relaxed in the villa for the rest of the evening.

Sunday we were up early to get down to the Glacier Walk place at 8.45am. It took ages to check in because there were so many people and you got issued with wollen socks, boats and coats. By the time we were in the bus up to the glacier it was about 9.45am. Once we got to the glaceir we split in to 2 groups of 25. We had to walk for 40 minutes across the braided riverbed before we even got the the beginning of the glacier. Walking across the river bed wasn't easy because we had to cross the river at several points and clamber over boulders.

Once we were at the start of the glacier we split into a further 2 groups of 13 each. Then we met out guide, a girl from Chilli and put on our crampons, then we were ready to go. The first part of the climb was up the terminal moraine at the foot of the glacier, our guide went first with her ice pick to clear and recut the steps in the ice. The climb was pretty tiring, after about half an nour it was more scenic because we got onto the pure ice, which in some places was really blue. In some places you had to hold onto a rope to help you up the ice because it was so steep. Had lots of rest stops on the way up and she told us various facts about the glacier. When you were climbing it you could really appreciate the size of the thing!

Didn't get to the tp of the glacier, that would have taken about 2 days, but we did get pretty high up and you got some amazing views of the valley. Walked through a few crevasses and then it was time to start the decent down. Going down was harder than coming up, you really had to stamp your feet in the ice so your crampons could grip. The decent probably took 45 minutes. Once we reached the bottom we were congratulated by our guide and then we had a quick 5 minute break to take our crampons off before we had to walk back along the riverbed. By the time we got back to the bus we were pretty tired!

Stopped for lunch in the village before we started the drive to Kapitea Ridge, which is between Greymounth and Hokitika and our next stop.

Love Hayley x