Today we were heading for another glacier - Franz Josef. We parked up in town and ate our breakfast in the car park (too may sandflies at the campsite) then used the internet and stocked up in the small supermarket. We then headed for the car park at the glacier, ready for the 1.5hour round trip walk to the glacier terminal face and back.

The fist 15 mins of the walk was through the forest and then we arrived at the valley leading up to the glacier that we could see in the distance. Unfortunately our camera had just about run out of battery, but we managed to take a few photos before it died.

On the way to and from the glacier we passed quite a few guided groups on their way to and from the ice. All of the groups looked a lot bigger than the day before, so we think we made the right decision to tour the smaller (and cheaper) Fox Glacier.

Up close, Franz Josef looked a little different from Fox - it was a lot steeper going up the valley, and had a much larger opening at the bottom of the terminal face. On the walk back to the van, we had to walk through some very strong gusts of wind, with stones being blown at us. We were relieved when we made it back to the shelter of the forest!

Back at the van we ate lunch before hitting the road again, driving North, through Harihari to a DOC campsite just south of Ross. The campsite, right on the Lake, was amazing. We sat reading on a pic nic bench for a while and then sat in the van writing postcards, the diary, and reading the paper. We cooked tea on a bench and ate overlooking the lake.

Later on, as we were reading in the van, we watched the beautiful sunset, but as our camera was dead we couldn't take any photos! Another stunning campsite location.