Arriving in Glacier Country we immediately headed off to explore Franz Josef glacier... unfortunately the route to the terminal or base of the glacier was recommended to be offlimits because of flooding...but did that stop us...oh no... We clambered through the ropes and yellow tape and walked the 2.5km to see the glacier up close and personal. However our sense did kick in when we realised that to actually get to the base we would have to clamber up a steep waterfall up the side of a cliff...no thanks! We still got some stunning views though.

The following day we headed 20km down the coast to Fox Glacier to do a guided walk on the glacier itself. The brochure said it was a 30 minute leisurely walk uphill onto the ice... but no it was a 2 hour hard slog up steep steps, sidling along narrow pathways with sheer drops and running away from fridge sized boulders rolling down the cliff face! Well it certainly wasn't dull... and that was just to get onto the ice!!!!

Once we reached the ice (Kim being almost dead with exhaustian by this point) we donned our raincoats and crampons and picked up our ice sticks and headed onto the glacier itself. Walking on the ice was very cool but sadly the rain made it hard to take pictures. Kim now thinks that she has never been a mountaineer in a past life... she's definetly not a natural!