To get to fOX Glacier we had to drive trhough some of Mount Aspiring national Park.. crossing the Haste River Bridge, with some fast flowing rapids below it!! Shortly after we came across Thunder Creek Falls, a short rainforest walk to the 28 M high waterfall, carved ut by an old Glacier. It was definately one of the more impressive waterfalls that we have seen in New Zealand so far! After a long windy scenic drive, we arribed at Fox Village towards late afternoon. We decided to quickly check out the glacier from a lookout before it got dark, which looked impressive, but was one of the further lookouts as the main access road to the lookout was shut due to a number of landslides. As it was getting dark we found a real good spot to stay the night, looking right at the Glacier from a distance, and also had amazing views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman!The plan for the next day was to clim Mt Fox, which is meant to offer stunning views of the glacier but the weather wasn't great again, and although we were told that it was going to pick up - it got worse!! The morning wasn't too bad, so we managed to walk to another scenic lookout of the glacier, but the weather soon changed for the worst.. and the next thing we knew we were up to our usual trick of a coffee and hot chocolate in the local cafe!! Close by lake Matheson is renound for its supurb relective waters of one of the most famous panoramas in New Zealand - with views of Mt Tasman and Mt Cook reflected in the water. So we decided to stick around for another day to see this. In the cafe we met Angelo and Daniel, an Israely and Brazillian - and ended up spending the rest of the day and evening playing cards at their hostel. Later on we took them up to the lookout as the weather began to clear, and had drinks and a meal with them - really nice lads!

The next morning we woke up to find amazing views of the fox Glacier, Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, from where we were camping.. such an amazing view!! We were straight to the visitpr centre to try and book he Franz Josef glacier tour, but typical - fully booked! :( as we had already wasted some time here, we decided to walk the Fox glacier instead, and within 10 mins we were geared up with our crAmpons and boots, and we were on our way to do the half day guided walk. To get to the glacier we had to cross landslide zones, cross 2 small rivers, and climb 700 steps up to the glacier! On the way up the 700 stairs we stopped fopr a breather at a small waterfall with the cleanest, clearest water - of which Chris was happy to fill up our bottle with!! Due to the bad weather, the tour guides and staff had to hand carve with pick axes a trail for us to get up onto the glacier, Walking through crevices to get to the top of the glacier. Its crazy how all this snow has been compressed into ice, and decends down the valley 10,000 times slower than the river. the area surrounding the glacier is so fragile becausethe glacier has retreated over the years, therefore all the pressure on the valley walls has been released causing landslides to occur - but apparently the glacier is now advancing again! Walking along the ice was unbelieveable.. the whole time we felt like we were going to fly flat on our faces (Thankgod for the crampons!!) It was unreal, so cold, so deep - an amazing environmental wonder!! We just wished we could have afforded a full day hike, as on this you can experience going into ice caves (depending on the movement of the glacier). on the way back down, we were lucky enough to see a couple of mountain goats on the other side of the river, and while walking through the woods we heard a number of thunder clashes from the breaking glacier. We were also shown a huge segment of glacier covered in debris from the landslides.. this was completely seperated from the main glacier, and was alot further in front - we were curious why it hadn't melted yet, but apparently the debris is a form of insulation making it melt more slowly. Luckily the whole day turned out perfect, the weather couldnt have been better - definately worth holding out for!!

Afte our glaciel walk, we went to walk round Lake Matheson as planned, the weather was still gorgeous, and the pictures were beautiful - however unlucky for us was that a big white cloud covered the tips of Mt Tasman and Mount Cook - nonetheless the reflection was awesome, defo worth waiting for! We finished the end of the walk with a perfectly clear rainbow in the distance, before heading off to Franz Josef shortly afterwards. This is where The Lighting of the Beakons was filmed in The Lord Of the Rings was filmed, this is the main reason why we wanted to walk this glacier in the first place. Both Glaciers are fairly similar,however Franz Josef is steeper and has more surrounding green vegitation - whereas the Fox Glacier was alot more rugged and hardcore (quite the experience!!). We walked to the main lookout, which was bombarded with chinese tourists - we got some nice pics and chilled out, but we needed to move on.

We drove on to Hokitika for the night, finishing the night off with Fish and Chips.. and a trip to the 'Glow Worm Dell', which had hundreds of lit up worms on an enclosed enbankment. Hokitika, Known for its greenstone (Jade), a popular jewel in New Zealand, didnt seem to have much else that we were interested in, so we moved on the next morning, drove through Greymouth (after doing a spot of shopping), and headed along the gorgeous coast to Punakaiki.