Very reluctantly and not without a fight, we left the farm and drove down the coast to Franz Josef. We were very excited about climbing the glacier and Dan had even hoped to go up in a helicopter to see it and land on it from the air. After much deliberation and soul-searching (and bank balance searching) we decided that going up in a helicopter was the 'f*****'s way' and we'd muster up the courage to climb the b*stard from the bottom up! HOO-HAH! Hardcore!

Our hike was 6 hours in total including 4 hours on the glacier itself and as we met out guide, a grumpy Dane called Roar, we thought we were in for a real tough slog. It was hard and the group weren't much fun but it turned out to be a fantastic day and we felt absolutley exhilarted to have climbed so high and in quite challenging conditions. We even saw a lone Kea - an alpine parrot - one of the things i had really hoped to see during my time in NZ. We were so lucky too, as Franz Josef glacier (believe it or not) it the third wettest place on earth with 8 METRES of rain a year. We had glorious sunshine and once again, the photos speak for themselves.

Our muscles are aching now and we enjoyed a well deserved sauna at the YHA afterwards, not to speak of a few pints in the pub!

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