Hi everyone! Just a quick entry about my hike up the Franz Josef glacier before I collapse of exhaustion. Before leaving Barrytown we went bone carving which was really great. I made a necklace and it was bloody hard - my first attempt snapped in half after I nearly lost a finger on the scary machine! Was so cool to actually make a necklace that they sell all over NZ and did not realise how difficult it was. Arrived in Franz Josef yesterday afternoon after several random stops at a greenstone factory and the bushman centre where we watched a very questionable DVD about deer hunting which had the tune from Top Gun in it!!! It was raining all day and when we arrived at our hostel there were 2 kiwi experience buses there and so the place was filled with 18 year olds. Had a good time in the bar but had a relatively early night ready for the big hike.

Today was brilliant! We hiked for 8 hours and it wasn't as tough as the Tongariro crossing but definitely colder. We were kitted out with a very stylish outfit complete with a red bum bag! The hike up was pretty steep but the views were awesome. My feet went numb within the first 5 minutes. I found the hike down more enjoyable for obvious reasons and because I thought the glacier was prettier and there were loads of crevices in the ice to walk through which made you realise just how huge it was. Arrived back at the hostel at 5ish and am ready to hit the spa pool. We leave here tomorrow and head to somewhere I can't remember the name of and then its off to Queenstown!!