It's Tuesday at 8am and we left Greymouth by Magic Bus to Franz Josef. We were excited knowing that it wouldn't be long until we were climbing the famous Franz Josef glacier.

During our journey we stopped off at a town called Ross known as gold town (www.Ross.org.nz). Unusually all forms of gold are found here - alluvial deposits, quartz and also beach sand gold. The main claim to fame for this town is that New Zealand's largest nugget called the "Honourable Roddy Nugget" was found here in 1909 weighing an eye- watering 99oz. Serious turn of the century bling!! The strange thing was that a local hotel had used the nugget as a doorstop for a number of years before it was sold on and used for other purposes. Parts of the town are believed to be still sitting on ca.10 million ounces of gold. We were told that the local mining company continues to make outsized offers to buy properties so it can knock them down and dig. At more than US$1,000 per ounce it's not difficult to see why they want to dig.

Anyway, we tried our skills at gold panning and were happy to come across some very small (and we believe planted!!) deposits of gold and a small jade stone. Happy days!

We arrived at the Chateu Franz Lodge in Franz Josef where we shared a lodge with Andy and Steff a couple from Australia. It was a very old looking lodge but cosy with a shared kitchen, lounge and bathroom.

After dumping our luggage at the lodge we explored the small town which took a whole 10 mins to walk around, believe me it's tiny! We booked our hiking trip up the Franz Josef Glacier for the following day and bought some steak and vegetables for tonights dinner!

We spent all night cooking on the most ridiculous and time consuming oven ever! The stove only had one ring working so boiling the vegetables had to be shared in the same saucepan as the potatoes! The steak was cooked and had to be kept in the oven on low heat whilst waiting for the veg! It nearly ended up chargrilled! All in all the dinner ended up tasting nice god knows how!! This went down well with a bottled of red wine we purchased on the wine tour in Nelson.

The next day we were up early as we needed to be in town registering our walk up the glacier and to get kitted out with all the neccesary equipment. We left on a bus which was full of other tourists all doing the same thing. When we arrived at the glacier we were split into groups with a guide for the day and shown how to attach the crampons to our boots. Our guide was very funny, very fit and very nice looking (Lisa says!) it was an amazing day for the weather as many days before it had been raining. We walked up the steep glacier which took all morning and part of the afternoon. Our guide had excellent step cutting skills allowing us to travel through the most spectacular and challenging glacier terrain imaginable. We went through three small caves getting stuck in one of them and many small crevices having to turn sideways to walk through and then climbing up the last bit by rope! At one point Lisa slipped and lost her leg in a crevice and had
to be pulled out by Mark and the guide. We don't know how deep this was as Lisa couldn't touch the bottom and due to it being partially covered in soft snow (it could have been 5 feet or 500feet!!). This frightened Lisa causing her to get upset and her heart beating very fast. The guide said it was best to carry on so Lisa gets over the mishap and has no fear in the future.

We continued with no other mishaps. We stopped for lunch which we had taken with us (chicken salad) on top of the glacier and took in the amazing views and the hard work it took to climb!

It was much easier going down the glacier but when we got to the bottom our legs felt like jelly. We gave each other a high five and said we made it! A pretty good feat especially as Mark was only recently out of a plastercast!!

This evening we went for an Indian meal with Andy and Steff. Cicero (our Brazilian buddy) came along just for a drink. After this the evening was spent in front of a log fire with Cicero having a couple of beers as Andy and Steff went back to the lodge.

The following morning we chilled out, did some washing/tumble drying and ate bacon sarnies.

Early afternoon we decided to join Andy and Steff on a quad biking tour. Lisa and Steff had never been before. Lisa took control of the bike feeling a little nervous whilst Mark sat behind and braced himself for a fun ride! We followed the guide and 7 other quad bikes
into the rainforest trying to maneaouvre around trees and rocks, across fairly deep riverbeds, and glorious mud! We took a break to see the outstanding views of Franz Josef Glacier and the Southern Alps. On our way back Lisa had gained speed and started to fly through the mud splashing everything in sight! We were lucky that we were going fast
otherwise we would have got stuck in the mud which happened to one bike! All in all it was a great fun afternoon and Lisa absolutely loved it.

This evening was spent in the local hotel Spa with Andy, Steff, Cicero, and Morgan. At times, Cicero seemed mesmerised with Morgan, her bikini and implants!!! The six of us (Cicero, Mark, Lisa, Morgan and her implants) went for a drink while Andy and Steff headed back. A few drinks and a few photos concluded a fun night. Not much sleep and we were on the Magic Bus to Wanaka.

That's all for now folks!!!