A HARD DAY'S WORK NOT CLIMBING THE GLACIER DAY 34: Franz Josef Franz Josef is famous for its huge glacier, with the main activity on offer here being to hike it (or by helicopter if you can afford it). As Jen had already done this before, and me having no burning desire to do it, we opted for a 10km round walk from the Franz Josef Village to the foot of the glacier. It was a nice walk which took us about three hours and gave us a bit of exercise. We'd made a...

ON THE BUSES DAY 33: Christchurch to Franz Josef Today we joined our Stray Travel bus which will be our means of transport for the next 10 days or so. After a chilly start we boarded a mini coach that would take us over the mountains from Christchurch in the East to meet our Stray bus in Greymouth in the West, passing through the beautiful Arthur's Pass. We stopped for a cup of tea here and finally the sun decided to come out. As we were looking up at the mo...

RAIN STOPS PLAY IN CHRISTCHURCH DAY 32: Christchurch The highs of yesterday's amazing events and great weather were brought crashing down to earth with horrendous wind and rain all day long in Christchurch today. After a lazy start to the wet morning, watching two crap movies and one half good one in bed, we decided to venture out for some lunch. And immediately regretted it as we got soaked. We found a nice little cafe with a fire on and we had some thick ...

SWIMMING WITH THE DUSKIES DAY 31: Kaikoura Today we did something that I never thought I would ever get to do. Something I will never forget for as long as I live. Today, we swam with wild dolphins in the ocean. The day started off bright and early with the swell thankfully calmer than yesterday. We checked in, slightly apprehensive, but excited all the same and got fitted for our wetsuits, flippers and snorkels. Not one person looked good in the thick neopr...

NO WAY WE WERE WATCHING WHALES TODAY DAY 30: Kaikoura After Skyping the Thompsons we headed across the road to the Whaleway Station (it's really called that) for our whale watching excursion. The weather was fabulous onshore, and the coastal swell much calmer than the day before so we had no doubt we'd be out at sea today. As we checked in for our 10.30 departure, we were advised that the swell was really 'gnarly' out at sea and that we didn't have to go if ...