The lure of Jelly wrestling was too much to ignore and as our plans of driving along the west coast was to take us back through Wanaka anyway it would be rude to not stop by. We met Nic at the pub just in time to see one of his work colleagues go up against another girl from a nearby rival ski resort go toe to toe in a large inflatable paddling pool full of lime jelly. The room was packed with jeering people of both sexes (surprisingly) and the girls had 3 minutes of wrestling to remove the rubber bands on each others arms and legs. First one to be de-banded was the loser. Sure enough within seconds the two girls were clawing at each other to get the bands and then the dirty tactics came out. One girl removed the others top and all was out in the open. The crowd went wild (well the blokes did anyway!) and this was like a red rag to a bull as Nic's colleague wrestled with the other girls top to level the playing field. Two minutes of topless jelly wrestling and embarrassment and it was all over. The bands removed and the opposition advanced to the next round. She eventually went on to win her semi final and the final to be crowned champion.

The next day we set off reasonably early to head across the country to the West Coast. The scenery is absolutely stunning as the road winds through valleys and over mountains. This coast road is a must if you have your own set of wheels and during peak season it is apparently almost nose to tail with campervans and tour buses. We had the luxury of summer like clear blue skies and not a soul on the road as we headed towards Haast on the coast.

On the way we stopped off to take a look at some of the many waterfalls that plummet from the valley walls to the roadside rivers and generally took an easy as we were in no hurry. We arrived in Haast around lunchtime where we constructed our sandwiches and took to the beach. Within minutes we were swamped by sandflies so with the sandwiches hastily scoffed and, once Katies stone skimming skills had been put to the test on the sea, we got back in the van and headed up the coastal road towards the Glaciers.

After a few viewpoint stops and driver changes we arrived in Fox where we took a small walk up to see the face of the famous Fox Glacier as it moves slowly down out of the mountains. It was here that we decided we would continue a further half an hour up the coast to Franz Josef to take a helihike the next day on the slightly more famous Franz Josef Glacier. Katie had already been to this area in her previous trip to NZ to skydive over the two glaciers but this time we were going to remain inside our transport for the entire time we were in the air! We booked in at the rainforest retreat with our camper parked in amongst the trees we were lulled to sleep by the sounds of geckos and whatnot and the next morning it was time to take to the skies.