The misty mountains

Kia Ora,

We woke up after a looooonnnngggg night battling the rain and the wind. Sarah did not sleep well-hence getting up at 9.15 and leaving the campsite late - 10.03! Opps.

we decided to drive down to the famous glaciers - franz josef. Apparently amazing drive as the mountains get closer.......unfortunately, we couldn't see sod all mountains - cloudy and rain! It went on for a good 16 hours and is still going on/off as we sit, post BBQ, in our camper van. 

On route we decided to go and visit the Hokitika gauge, it has a famous bridge which goes from side to side. Well, as you can imagine, thanks to all the rain fall, the once clear turquoise, clear waters were no more, and had risen about 10 meters. This grey murky POWERFUL river was a true terror to walk over. The noise was something that you would expect in a horror film, and the ferns and greenery that surrounded it was something straight out of Jurassic park! Apparently we were the only people in new Zealand to think it was a good idea to go and visit flooded rivers whilst it was still raining and at very high risk of us being smashed away.

Which reminds me - how stupid are cows and sheep! They just carry on munching away through torrential rain and flooding! I'm pretty sure half didn't even notice they couldn't get to the other side of the fields. Idiots.

On route we stopped at Ross, An old gold mining town. Again, Neil refused to let Sarah play gold mining girl and so back into the bus and off to the mountains.

And as for tomorrow, heli hiking. This is taking a helicopter to the top of the famous franz josef glacier and walking around up there for a few hours.......YES PLEASE! Sarah is particularly excited as this way she doesn't have to walk for 4 hours to get to the interesting bit. THANK YOU HELICOPTER! 

But now, we are in a delicious forest campsite and have our very own private spa hour coming up. 

Bon nuit xx