Day 12 – Franz Josef Glacier Hike
Pretty awesome day today – not often can you say you spent the day hiking the world’s steepest walkable glacier, and one of only 3 glaciers in the world surrounded by rainforest...and the fact that you were hiking on ice! Put on the crampons (not croupons or tampons) and led by our guide called Kruddy who we then nicknamed Poo we explored 13km of crevasses, big ice holes, waterfalls and at one point water – having to cross over putting your feet into the ice cold water to find the footstep to work your way across. The photos do more justice of what I can write really.
In the evening we enjoyed a well earnt hot tub, even if it was pretty dirty and Rich was drinking a carton of milk surrounded by girls drinking champagne. That’s how we roll.

Day 13 - Franz Josef to Wanaka
Pretty stunning scenery on this drive. Especially the reflection of Mount cook on Lake Matheson even if it was a bit cloudy and we couldn’t actually see mount cook, but the postcards looked cool! Also stopped off at lake Hawea and lake wanika – massive massive lakes along the road side – and very quiet. Made the water look incredibly still which led to some awesome reflections. Hghlight was me falling off a little chain fence backwards in slow motion in front of not one, but two buses at a viewpoint all looking in my direction. Brilliant.
Arrived in Wanaka and had a bargain $6 bbq and some beerskies whilst a domestic was going on between a drunken girl and her fiancé who lived in the hostel – classy.

Day 14 – Wanaka to Queenstown
After spending the night dreaming about bunjee jumping – my dream involved something like the water come up to the bridge, so i was going to jump off straight into the water and I complained. Strange. First stop today though was puzzle world. Now i’ve never really liked puzzles so a world full of them didn’t exactly inspire me with joy. There were a few cool illusions though, some random rooms and then puzzles to play with in the cafe. Not really my cup of tea to be honest.
Next was an hours drive to the Kawarau Bridge where the original bunjy was to take place. I was actually more excited than nervous believe it or not and was quite eager to get it done. At 43 metres it wasn’t extremely high, but was higher than your average diving board. Quite exciting being up there and diving off, although the buzz didn’t last that long because you weren’t free falling for ages. Still, ticked the box.
Arrived in Queenstown at the Discovery lodge, got a dorm with 8 beds so our kiwi family could stick together. Fabian planned to dye his hair blond and we all chilled out in the room preparing to get absolutely sozzled.