04/01/06- 15/01/06 We leave the nice warm nest Zoe had provided for us over christmas period. We get the urge to hit the road again getting like real travellers. First Stop Maruara Springs health Farm, for a little TLC we have 3 hot outdoor springs to copy from, Japaneese indoor and private spa. we tried all of them well you have to eh!! finished off with Massage, mmh that was nice. The weather is still grim so no hurry to go anywhere, We choose the East coast to see if the weather has improved, Yeah we are on for the Whale watching (See photo's) Fri 6th We set off on a large catarmaran full speed , out to the drop off zone. The computer is reading 1200mtrs to sea bottom, here they put out the sounder and we can all hear the whale approaching the surface, and YES he's here beautiful Sperm Whale he is about 18mtrs long and stays on the surface for 15mins the guide tell us he is an adolescent male and lives here whilst maturing, We also saw Albatros on flight very low to the sea, unfortunatley too quick for photos on our return we play with a pod of dusky dolphins, It cant get any better surely. Saturday 7th We are off to search for Gavin'd greatgrand fathers coal mine at Reefton and then on our way south again. We rest thr night at Westport Cape Foul Wind for obvious reasons the wind was howling, we find a lovely spot next to river lovely for an early morning splash!! Sunday 8th we are now at Punakaiki to see the amazing Pancake Rocks and blow holes we were lucky enough to have a sunny day again. They are million years old, fromed by the sea cutting away at the limestone. 9th We are at Frans Josef Glacier. WOW what an amazing experience We took a helicopter flight (THANKS TO BLUE WATER DIVING)then had 2 hr walk on the glacier, what amazed me the most was the blueness of it all. This was our first heli flight, (well the other one didint count!!) We were lucky enough to have front seat on our way up, The glacier experiences 4 earth tremors every 24 so it is on the move the whole time, at the moment it is receeding 1.5mtrs a day this is an awesome amount. On our return we walk up to the terminal face so we have been on the top and at the terminal. 11th - 13th The weather is really bad now so we wrap up and set off to find the FOX glacier terminal face. just as amazing if not more amazing was the centre river and the force of the river flowing from it. 13th We are now in WANAKA we have tramped Mt Iron only 240mtrs high. 14th Today we thought we could try something a little higher Roys Peak at 1578mtrs now that was more of a challenge, We could see Mt Aspiring from the ridge also Lake Wanaka from end to end this is the only spot high enough to see this. Now moving onto Milford Sounds via Queenstown