For anyone who ever has any doubt as to whether the long flight to New Zealand is worth it may I please assure you that it is worth it twenty times over. Today was just the most stunning day and it alone has made this trip worthwhile. We're in the township of Franz Josef and at 7 this morning we got up for a full day hike on the Franz Josef glacier. We've just had rain since we got here but this morning we woke up to perfect clear skies as the sun came up and the only cloulds we saw all day were a thin mist over the bottom of the vally which made the views even more perfect. We went in the more adventurous of the slower groups whichi was great because we had a really entheusiastic guide and there were only 8 of us in the group. You climb the terminal face of the glacier up steps which are cut by the guides early in the mornign and there are ropes to hing onto and cool little bridges which they put across the cravases. There was quite a lot of rock fall but the guides are pretty careful and obviously know what they're doing. We went through loads of ice formations, did some scary climbing where we went along cravases with one foot on either side (I aquired a temporary head for heights for the day) and my favourite bit was the ice tunnel which you crawl though like those army tunnels you see them training in, I though it was so cool everyone had to wait for me to go back and do it again. Got some great photos too. There were so many fantastic views, the valley had stunning mountains on either sides and the blue sky against the blue/white ice looked brilliant. Plus they gave you ice axes, good for posing with if nothing else. Off to Wanaka tomorrow!