Already written this entry but it got deleted into the iPhone ether - so here I go again...(I only swore once honest).

So we didn't make the heli hike option this morning - when we checked in it was brightening up but very quickly the weather closed in - so no thermals, crampons, hats and gloves or ice axes required - a real shame as it would have been the first time for mum in a helicopter - however we did walk to the face of two glaciers ; the Frans Josef and Fox's and we definitely required wet weather attire.

What was incredibly freaky however was bumping into and English friend and colleague Charles Way, his wife Steph and their daughter in the car park before you walk to Fox's glacier - just unbelievable and such a small world.

Yesterday we walked along the coast among huge flax bushes and coastal forest. The weather was again very kind to us - at times a bit warm for walking at the fast pace we were going but it was only for about 3 hours. We then had lunch and a shop in Hokitika. Lunch was wonderful fish and chips (hand cut) by the sea - powerful waves at high tide. Mum and I managed a bit of retail therapy - buying each other some green stone necklaces for both our birthdays.

When we arrived at our next place of rest in a very small town near Frans Josef - a lovely chalet house where we all stayed and had dinner cooked for us, eaten at this huge 5m long table with massive giant arm chairs at either end that even made Lofty look like a hobbit sat in one - so imagine what my mum at 5ft looked like! We went for a walk up to a viewing point with the most amazing views all round - stayed there until the mosquitoes and sand flies started to bite - so time to head back.