Well since have last blogged have been through more of the south island and treked a glacier!!

Left Blenheim to set off for Greymouth for an overnight before making our way down to Franz Josef but instead of staying in Greymouth, which would require a long early morning drive to reach Franz where we were scheduled to do a skydive, we decided to drive further on to Hokitika and spend the night there instead.

Sunday morning we got up early to be meet by pouring rain we decided to still make the early morning drive to franz in the off chance the dive would still be on (wasn't sure if I was happy or sad about the rain haha). On the 2 hour drive it did seem to brighten up but when we arrived at the Fox glacier it was very cloudy so the dive was cancelled, so feeling slighty relieved and more relaxed we headed back to franz and checked into a motel with a flatscreen tv haha so needless to say we didn't leave there for the rest of the day haha.

Monday morning was another early rise as today we were treking up the Franz Josef glacier! Kitted out in our uber sexy hiking gear we began our 8 hour day treking the glacier. It was amazing climbing to about 600m above sea level and in and out of ice caves! It did get cold but not as bad as I imagined, was only really cold when we were hanging about at lunch with our homemade ham and cheese sandwiches! After decending and getting out of our treking gear we treated ourselves to dinner in the restaurant beside the motel before returning for another movie night.

Next day we were scheduled for another skydive but yet again was cancelled due to weather even although we needed our sunglasses was still too cloudy to dive :-( so we made our way to Hanmer Springs via Pancake Rocks. On the way we were stuck in a traffic jam at a bridge so decided to make the most of our time and had ham and cheese crackers for lunch! We arrived at Hanner Springs around tea time and had some trouble trying to find accommodation as it's half term here but found a great motel with a spabath and sky tv hahaha not sure this is quite backpacking haha.

Today we went to where Hanmer Springs is famous for the thermal pools! The average temp was around 36 degrees with the hottest sulphur pool being 41 degrees! But the smell was disgusting!! haha. This afternoon after the springs we lazed about before getting active and playing tennis until a tea of fish and chips!

Heading to Christchurch tomorrow to meet Carmel!!

xxxx