All feeling slightly worse for wear (and me having plastered the shower with red paint from my costume) we trudged on to the bus heading for Franz Josef. We had a vote on the bus for the best costume of the previous night and I came second behind a bloody strawberry!!!!!! Not even me rigging the voting by voting for myself worked as I lost by 2 votes. Once again another Kev financial plan falls flat.

The first stop of the day involved a visit to the Bushman Centre. None of us knew really what to expect but boy was it an experience. It was run by another crazy old bearded guy called Pete who was an ex-deer hunter and clearly had a wicked sense of humour given his opening gambit. The visit started with a 20 minute video about the history of deer hunting in NZ, which was bloody hilarious, particularly a guy jumping from a helicopter and tackling a dear. After that the museum got even more weird and surreal. He had an eel, possums, hog, goats and deer's to see amongst other random hunting items stroon around the place (oh forgot to mention stuffed ferrets). I'm sure the RSPCA would not have been too pleased.

Having been suitably amused and bemused by the museum we went to the café, which along with almost any local animal you could think of put in a pie or burger, included an exhibit of complaint letters sent to Pete (understandable given the amount of shameless bad taste involved) and his outrageously rude yet brilliant replies. My favourite was the following…the complaint letter asked whether he had ever considered why there were so few people in the museum, Pete's letter in response read, "Maybe the reason many people weren't there is because you're a miserable p****"

In the afternoon in Franz Josef a group of us decided to go paintballing and it turned out to be a good craic. I had never been before but really enjoyed it having taken and given some good shots (despite being peltered by my own team when I had been taken hostage). The rainforest setting made it pretty intense but the tension was often shattered by the hilarious farting sound of a gun running out of gas.

Woke up the next morning with a full glacier hike ahead. Had to stop off at the supermarket to get some lunch for later and decided that being known for my love of pies I had to buy one to consume on the glacier (there is photographic proof). They split us into four groups and me and Chris decided to go in the last one as they said it was more leisurely, also in our group was Sunny the lovable stoner and theIrish girls (get ready for questions). Off we went with our over-active hobbit like tour guide Colin (which wasn't even his real name, just one we gave him).

There were some spectacular views but it wasn't as taxing physically as I though. The most taxing part was having to listen to listen to the Irish girls' inane questions and wittering, with "Colin making the fatal error of saying, "Don't hesitate to ask any questions" at the start. Memorable moments included fat girl falling down, mine and Chris's moon (which upon later photographic viewing it was roundly decided I have an arse nubbin), but the winner was undoubtedly was the Irish girls now infamous 5-in-1 question, "What's your favourite song? What's your favourite band? Is it oasis? What's your favourite oasis song? Is it wonderwall?" all said before I had chance to answer one question! Arrrrrggggggghhhh!

The point of Colin, apart from cutting ice steps, wasn't overly apparent given his advice included such classics as; look where you're going, put one foot in front of the other, don't trip over your own feet and don't make any fatal mistakes (wasn't planning to).

Glacier conquered and safely back we headed to the glacier hot pools. It was agreed that 38 degrees was the best temperature and that we probably didn't ingratiate ourselves with the peaceful fellow bathers, firstly by me tripping and falling in and then secondly with talk of space docking and the like. As an aside, with Beth having been away from her boyfriend for a while we decided she was enjoying the jets in the water just a little too much.

Went to the local curry house for dinner which was awesome, especially the onion bahjis, and then hit the hostel bar for the rest of the evening with the usual crew plus Simon, Ruth and Shelley who we had met in Nelson. Mention must be made of mine and Sunny's outstanding rendition of the 'Pick and Shovel' dance and the 'Franz Shuffle'.