Day 4- Greymouth to Franz Josef- We once again had to get uo early- oh goody! Breakfast consisted of beans on toast for Scott and Porridge made with water and a heck of a lot of sugar for me in the hope it would taste better! It really didn't! we got picked up by the bus at 7.45am, it was so much more relaxed on the magic bus than the Greyhound. First stop was Hokitika which was a town in NZ famous for greenstone (jade) it was a shop full of all expensive greenstone things- so exciting to look around...NOT. So we then looked in a gold shop which was also dull but Scott read the history! Next stop was Ross where I tried my hand at gold panning for real gold and greenstone- I soon found out goldpanning wasn't my thing as I was naff at the technique and the lady said the way I was going, all the gold was going to fall out- I couldn't see any anyway! So I gave up and let the lady finish my panning tray off an filter my gold for me. I somehow managed to get more gold than others- maybe my useless technique worked! Wahoo! Maybe I should sell my gold when I get back home, the way the economy is going I could make a fortune with my 10 grains of gold! Scott spent the remainder of the time before getting on the bus trying on wooly (wolly) hats! From Ross we then drove to an odd cafe which sold possum roadkill pies which your not legally allowed to sell but if you make a donation to charity for it then thats alowed. The busdriver said you needed a sense of humour to understand the cafe- he wasn't far wrong! We read some of the complaints he got which he framed, and the responses he gave- his motto for his possum pies was "you kill em we'll grill em". Well that pies sold is to us...maybe we'yy try headlight delight instead?! Whatever that is! We thought we would go for a little less crazy option of an egg and bacon toastie for Scott and a filter coffee for me in attempt to stop me doing 100 yawns a minute!- we know how to live! haha! Back on the bus and we both fell asleep within 20minutes- well that coffee worked then! I want my money back! We arrived to Franz Josef at 1pm- where the bus driver gave us a tour of the town on the bus which took a grand total of less than a minute- 2bars, 2cafes, 3 shops, and the glacier company all on one street. The 3main hostels were all in one cul de sac. We had our free night in the YHA for joining it- wahoo! So that made up for getting soaked to the skin in between collecting our bags from the bus and getting to the hostel. Scott in true Scott style hit his head getting the bags out- which must have had some effect on him as he then ran with both backpacks over to the hostel! What a keeno! We checked in and put our bags by our chosen bunkbeds- yes back to bunkbeds again, and threw our rain macs on before running to have a nosey around the souvenir shops and to buy our 3 dinners in the supermarked. We found lots of sheep abd kiwi orientated things but very few cows- cows are all I have seen so far- maybe they are eating the sheep or something! So after farting around looking at all the souvenirs, we then went to get some food shopping which gave us a shock as prices here were more expensive than Australia was! O la la we're going to starve! We decided to buy the cheapest things we could find that would go with rice...oh and value cookies too as our sugar boost! Seeing as it was still pouring with rain and you not being able to see the mountains around you- which I thought there should have been- we thought it best to chill for the afternoon and catch up with the blog! At dinner times we made our most exciting of the 3 dinners- we were going to have sausages, red onion, peppers, and rice! mmm yummy rice! Whilst cooking Scott said to me "it smells like someone's baking a cake", to which I replied "it smells of severe burning dear". How can you not tell the difference...unless he has always burnt his cakes! After dinner we thought we would spend the evening relaxing in the sauna...or should I say sweat your bodyweight! We had to have freezing cold showers before going in which I thought was nuts, but I can now see why! It was beyond humid in there and I soon feared I was sweating off my Australia tan from peeling! I hoped I wasn't, as I had no chance in New Zealand of topping it up as it was freeeeeezing here, a little warmer than home...just. we went from sauna to cold shower to the sauna again and then to the shower before going for a warm shower. The heat must have got to Scott as when he got out he put a pair of flip flops on he thought was his only to go around the corner to where his stuff was to find his sitting there! Bed time dear, we need you sane for tomorrow!Day 5- Franz Josef Glacier hike- We had another lay in- gosh we are so lazy an got up at 6.40am! we made our porridge and our lunch before heading to the Franz Josef office to sign in and get kitted out for our little expedition. We got given a lovely clue jacket, waterproof trousers, soem huge builder looking walking boots each and finally a bum bag which had ouor crampons in- we all looked the part and we pulled off the bum bag look very well if I do say so myself...cough cough! We all got on the bus and drove 10mins closer to the mountains which we could see today! Once off the bus we walked 30minutes through the national park to the bottom of the hench hill- an old lady we passed on the way asked what all 40 of us were doing - we're off to the shops what do you think! Silly cow. 30minutes into the walk and my huge boots were already rubbing me. And that was with my plasters on! Oh its going to be a long day! At the bottom of the hill we then had a choice of groups to go in: group 1 was for confident experienced hikers; group 2 was for middle of the range hikers; and group 3 was for plodders. Group 2 got filled up before we had time to move so without discussion Scott moved into group 1! Helloooo dear you do realise I'm not a confident experienced hiker on the ice! I'm bloody terrifed of falling over and I'll walk at snails pace in these shoes! According to the brochure Franz Josef Glacier is th most spectacular glacial environment anywhere in the world! This trip wasn't just walking on the flat path of the glacier however. Once we had our crampons put on (spikes on shoes) the guide cut paths and steep steps as we moved through the glacier - was like the red carpet treatment and I had to go first as the guide saw me falling off the pace at the back scared of my every step - dam Scott! So I went to the front where the guide could keep a close eye on me and make sure I didn't fall down any crevasse's! (cracks that go deep down in the ice) That was kind of him! I guess it also meant that I then couldn't hold the group up and take all day just to get to the halfway point! Whilst I was a little scared of losing my footing. (I was apparently too dainty with my steps and needed to stamp more!) Scott however was striding off loving every moment, and between us we happy snapped alot. One major obstacle of the day was when Zac (our guide) decided to take us up and down verticle slopes in the ice which he took about 5minutes to cut a path for us, it was terrifying being the first group to try them out (the other groups followed us and had easier steps) as the stpes were minimal and you had only a rope to hold onto for dear life! This expedition sure was tiring! One of the highlights of the day was going through an ice cave that had only formed a few days ago! I found this daunting as you had to go through the smallest of gaps and I was sure the whole bloody thing was going to fall on me! I was assured that this wouldn't happen however so we went through one at a time! It was beautiful to look at even if it did mean I got wedged between the ice trying to get out and put one foot in front of the other without tripping up! I dread to think how larger people got through this you needed to do more than just breathe in! At 1pm we had lunch and sat on a flat part of the glacier. This 20minutes allowed me to eat, go and see (in an ice stream) and put more plasters on my poor feet. It was only me whose shoes were rubbing them to death! How! On the way down we got talking to more of the people in our group- one guy worked in Afghanistan helping with the redevelopment of the provinces. What he did sounded aswesome and something you wouldn't hear about on the news! He also got lots of holiday so a bonus! Back to the hike...we went down lots of crevasse's- holes in the floor big enough to walk through- if you were chlostraphobic before this trip- you would have either cured your fear or this would be an utter nightmare for you! We got down around 5.30pm where I felt physically exhausted- especially the knees and blistered feet! Couldn't chill out for long though as we had an exciting dinner to make! We had planned a tin of tuna that came in a satay sauce to have with rice, peppers, red onion...in theory this sounded lovely- when dishing up however we got a whiff of it and in Scott's words "it smelt like s***"! And after tasting it proved our assumptions in that it tasted like s*** too! Within 10seconds dinner was in the best place for it...the bin...and we were halfway down the road to the takeaway! Fish and chips were a much improved dinner and we got good value for money too!Day 6- Franz Josef- We had a well deserved lay in and wrote some blog. At 11am we had breakfast with not another person in sight- where did everyone go! With it being lovely and sunny outside we decided to go for a walk on the trail and do 2 walks lasting 1hour20minutes each! I was seriously hoping they would be flat walks as the old legs hadn't quite recovered from yesteradys hike...unfortunatly as its New Zealand, there are no flat walks, and I struggled up the hill slower than snails pace as I couldn't extend my left leg! This is worrying, have I over-exercised or am I just getting old?! haha! The hills overlooked a fast moving river which came down from the glacier and a huge tunnell. Scott got in a huge strop as he found he had left his torch in his rucksack so we couldn't walk the 1500yard tunnell- oh dam! So we wlaked back down the hill (hard work also) ad did the second walk. Scott got a little scared when he saw a sign saying explosives- why in the middle of a mountain would you have a sign saying that other than to worry us! So after re-asssuring him we'd be ok, we carried on until we got to a bridge which was closed off- not having much luck with the walks but never mind, it was coming up to lunchtime so enough time to walk back and park ourselves on a bench! mmm ham sandwiches on dried bread! After chilling in the room for an hour we went to the hotpools for the afternoon which were 3 pools at 36degrees, 38degrees, and 40degrees in temperature. The guy told the people in front of us in the queue that you could stay in the pools all day...surely thats not sensible as you'll get wrinkly skin in no time! We went in the coolest pool first building up to the hottest- nice and relaxing. All Scott wanted was for it to be cold outside- why would you wish that Scott- we hate the cold! An hour and lots of wrinkly skin later we got out and made the most of the free testers in the shop on the way out! Face cream, hand cream- saved us using our supplies hey! On the way back we stopped off to buy dinner, I had to hold Scott back from buying some more satay tuna. We instead bought some stuff for mince fajhitas- they tasted good! (not as good as the ones back home though but then again nothing does!) We bought some dairy milk chocolate yesterday and it just doesn't taste good at all!