We arrived at Franz Josef and it was a nice little town, not much there but it had a few bars :-) which looked cool and had free wifi, which was a bonus as internet is so expensive in NZ. When we checked into our campsite, which was in the native rainforest (as the picture shows), it was one of the nicest weve stayed at and was really picturesque. We found our pitch and then headed into town to book Ash's skydive and it only took about 1 minute to do so we decided to go on a walk upto the base of the glacier (Franz Josef). It was a really nice walk and we went off the path and got some cool pictures of us in and around these 2 waterfalls (as the pictures show). It took about an hour to get to the base of the glacier and we got soked as it was only raining at the bottom of this mountain and not anywhere else. We stayed for a while took some pictures and headed back to camp. We went out that night to a couple of bars and got really drunk.

The next day we woke up and headed off to the skydiving place were I(Ash) was doing an 18,000ft skydive (the highest in the southern hemisphere) we got there nice and early and I filled in the form and we then waited until they were ready for us to go. Me and becky followed in the campervan so she could come to the airfield. We got there and we all got suited up and introduced to our skydiving person (I got the guy I would of chose if I could pick as the other two instructers didnt look like I would trust my life with them) and we got introduced to the person who would be doing our video.

We all hopped onto the plane and I would be jumping last as the other 2 people were jumping from 12,000ft. It was really funny watching them jump as on my last skydive I was first so didnt get to see anyone jump out of the plane. Once they had jumped we started ascending to 18,000 and at 15,000 we had to put oxygen masks on, my instructor went over the jump proceedure again (at this point I was feeling a lot calmer than my other jumpin England) so listened and got ready. We soon reached our final hieght and he showed me the actual altitude which was 18,340ft. Then once the door was opened we shuffled to the edge and the guy flung us out of the plane, it was the most amazing scenery I could see all these mountians and both glaciers and I had a 75 second freefall to take it all in. AMAZING just look at the photos (if I can get them on).

Once the jump was done we headed back to the campervan and we didnt really know what to do so becky did the washing while Ash stayed in the camper and chilled. Later that day we headed off to the glacier pools and paid for a private spa pool in the middle of the rainforest, it was really relaxing and we had our only little hut with a shower and stuff so you didn't have to sit in the big pools with lots of people. After that we went back to the campervan and watched a film, we were tempted to visit some of the really good bars again but could not really afford it, a pint of beer here in a pub costs like 4 pounds!

The next day we got up and drove to Fox Glacier which is only a 30 minute drive away, we booked into a campervan site and got ready for our heli - hike we had booked online. We got kitted out by the glacier guides in sturdy boots, thermal socks and waterproof coats. They took us up to the glacier in a helicopter which was a ten minute scenic flight, they flew us around waterfalls, the top of the glacier and it was amazing! We had both never been in a helicopter before and both really enjoyed it. When we landed we had to wait for some more groups of people to be transferred back down to town and they made us crouch on the floor and cover our faces so as not to get ice chips hit us in the eye when the helicopter was taking off. They then gave us crampons to fit on our boots and we went for a walk for about 2 hours around the glacier. We saw little waterfalls of melting ice, big blue caves of ice, big cracks in the ice and took lots of photos! We were even able to drink the melting water! It was kind of tricky at some points especially for Becky with her crap balance walking up steep hills of ice and avoiding holes in the ice! It was a really great experience and we saw so much up there but the weather started to turn pretty quickly from really sunny to cloudy rain so we had to rush back down to the helicopter to go back. It was surprisingly warm up there and we did not wear the coats they gave us or the jumpers we brought along. After the second helicopter trip back to town we had a walk around, saw that there was nothing in the town except for a petrol station, shop, and a few pubs and food places so decided to have a few beers (when in rome) and some food. Whilst eating our massive bbq ribs and chips with aioli(a lovely garlic sauce they make here, Becky's Dad and brother would love it, Becky is going to try to make it when we get back, it is not like mayo) we noticed the glacier guides in the pub and realised apart from working and going to the pub people who live in Fox must have nothing else to do at all. It rained pretty bad when we got back to thre van at about 7pm so we were confined to the van reading all night!