We're in Franz Josef, a town with only 4 shops - a book shop, a supermarket, a souvenir shop and a petrol station. The only reason people come here really is the glacier of the same name. I have convinced myself to join Simon on a half-day Glacier trek, which we are leaving for in about an hour. I'm a bit apprehensive about whether I have the fitness and how cold it will be up there. It's something I've never done before though, and this trip should be about doing new things rather than opting out of everything because I'm scared. Also, I found out last night the minimum age for this hike is 8 years old, and if an 8 year old can manage it, I certainly can!

On Sunday we got a bus from Te Anau to Queenstown, where we spent 1 night. It was a good opportunity to get some kumara chips from a really nice fish and chip shop called Hoki Doki. We ate our takeaways by the harbour, watching a young guy with a strong accent busking, he was pretty funny but he tried hard so I gave him a few coins. There were lots of ducks hanging out there as well. We made the mistake of booking into a hostel with a bar/club underneath it though. Earplugs don't block out heavy bass, but I still managed to get a decent night's sleep!

Yesterday we set out early and got a coach from Queenstown to Franz Josef. We stopped at a number of places, including a salmon farm, which was really cool. We got to feed these pellets to the salmon, and the small ones actually jumped out of the water in their scramble to get them. They were in these round enclosures in the water, where they all swam round in the same direction. The big ones swam round more lazily, Their mouths were terrifyingly huge though, like they could swallow someone's foot easily! They seemed pretty relaxed given they would soon be on the menu in the cafe just above them, but I guess they didn't know that... Incidentally, I couldn't bring myself to eat anything with salmon in there.

We also stopped at Lake Wanaka (pronounced 'Won-acker', not like the word you're thinking of!), where there are some huge fish swimming around the jetty because they know they will get fed. It's funny when the ducks swim over the fish, they kind of jump up in surprise.We went to this really cool beach too, the rocks looked like they had something shiny in, it probably isn't gold but it looked kinda like it. I'll upload some photos. It must be cool to be an InterCity driver, you just take people to cool places and get free drinks and food at all the cafes. Just after leaving Queenstown, we went back through Cromwell, and stopped at the Jones' fruit farm for the second time, where I bought some nice fruit. They must survive off coach groups.

On Saturday night we went to the glowworm caves in Te Anau. We got a boat across the lake, then walked into these caves with our guide, who looked like a hobbit (I think they only hire short people, because the cave roof is low). Then we got this little boat thing through the dark and saw lots of glow worms. It was really cool, but kind of sad that they spend 9 months as larvae, then become adults and the adults can't eat, so they die after a couple of days. On the way back through the caves we saw a massive eel in the water.

We went for a walk last night along a track which is supposed to lead to a place with glowworms, but it was closed half way along because of flood damage. We did see a possum though, which was a bit scary because its eyes glow in the dark, bright orange, but actually it just kind of wandered around, looking a bit dazed by us taking flash photos of it. I know you're supposed to kill them, but we didn't really have any humane means to,

So, that's where we are, off to the glacier soon!