We all had a really good lie in today and feel so much better for it.
Plus we woke up to glorious sunshine, and absolutely stunning views of the snow-capped mountains around us. We saw none of this yesterday because it was really misty and miserable.

So, it's Valentine's Day today...well, we decided not to do anything at all for it - we've no money!!

We were going to go for a bit of a hike today, but instead, at 2pm we went off to do the Glacier Experience. Mel managed to get the price down from $133 (£67) to $106 (£53) plus a free beer and a free hour of Internet. And after all that, she didn't want to spend the money on it. It was just me, Therese and Craig. We had a nice short drive through the valley then a short walk towards the Tasman Glacier, which is the largest glacier in NZ. Again, the scenery was spectacular.

Then it was time to jump in a little boat to cruise around the Tasman Glacier Lake. It's a weird milky colour because the glacier grinds against the rocks creating powder that then flows into the lake. The tour guide told us to put our hand in the water for 10 seconds...it was absolutely freezing! Then we cruised up to the many icebergs floating in the lake that have broken away from the glacier. They're huge, and we could only see 10% of each one, as the rest is submerged. One of them is touching the bottom of the lake, 300 metres down! The colours are amazing - blues and greens.
Then we cruised up to the glacier itself - not too close though. It's not the prettiest of glaciers. It's covered in rocks and dust and mostly looks a dull grey colour, but there's still those nice shades of blue coming through. The sun was beaming down on us, but when the boat picked up speed on the way back, it was really cold!

It was a great experience and apparently there are only 3 places in the world where it can be done. Glad we did it, but it's probably the first time we've done a tour/trip and felt over charged.

When we got back, we went for a hot chocolate in the cafe of the only hotel in Mt Cook, where our tour started from. We sat on the balcony with an amazing view of Mt Cook and the other surrounding mountains with blue glaciers hanging from them. We're just in awe all the time around here, it's incredible. And the views aren't spoilt by any buildings because there's nothing here in Mt Cook. There's the main hotel, the backpackers hostel and then some housing for the staff in the resort, and that's it. There's no shops of any kind or anything else.

We got back and were pretty tired again. We even dozed off for 10 minutes, but I got up to get started on family tea. I couldn't be bothered with all that farce in the kitchen again like last night. This time, beef stir-fry. Plenty of veg again too, which we all need - courgette, mushroom, onion, carrot, bean sprouts, tomatoes, broccoli, red pepper. It turned out absolutely lovely too. No stress in the kitchen either.

Obviously, we had tea and tim-tams again too! We don't go drinking anymore, just have tea and biscuits. Civilised.