This morning we hiked to the base of Franz Josef glacier. We started the hike through rainforest which opened into the basin of the glacier valley. It was so odd to have this contrast of landscape adjoining. There are many glaciers in this area but Franz Josef is the most accessible. It was a great walk about 2 hours return. The weather cooperated once again so got a great view of the glacier. One third of New Zealand is National Parks and another 2000 stat...

We love Wanaka New Zealand!! If we would rate our day it would be a 10. We started our day with an Alpine hike or a "tramp" as they say here climbing Mt Iron which was 1500 feet. When we got to the top we had a 360 view of the lakes and mountains. The temps were perfect for hiking at about mid 70's. Then we proceeded with a drive hugging the shoreline of Lake Hawea and then Lake Wanaka. These lakes are miles long and the brightest aqua color, which are formed...

Today we drove to Wanaka. It was only in the mid 50's when we left Te Anau. It's typical that the temps drop here at night. Again the drive was spectacular. I think it's safe to say all of the drives in this country are spectacular. Our camper van is equipped with a "tourist radio" which has a GPS built into it to give us information about the area and points of interest as we drive. We drove to Queenstown which is known to be the town for adrenalin junkies....

Today we took tour from Te Anau to Milford Sound. Fiordland is New Zealand's largest National Park. With high mountains and beautiful coastline. The tour took us on a 3 hour bus tour which stopped at some spectacular lakes and waterfalls. It snowed last night in the high elevations which made the mountains spectacular this morning. It's very early for snow. There was a little hike that took us to a Chasm which was rushing and rushing turquoise boulder laden r...

Today we crossed over the lower end of the South Island to Te Anau which will be our take off for Milford Sound. We continued to enjoy the beautiful countryside and now the mountains. It's interesting they raise deer in this region. We saw many herds and venison is one of the top restaurant specialties.