Nobody wanted to get up this morning as our cross dressing night had turned into a skinny dipping party down at the lake (Ben and I excluded!) The replacement bus picked us up at 10am and took us to the Bushmans Centre in Pukekura. Really didnt like this place, it demonstated how western NZ used to be like with possum trapping and deer recovery using helipcopters. The guy here was really rude but he didnt care. After this pointless stop we made our way directly to Franz Josef passing some beautiful sights and catching our first glimpse of snowy mountains along the way. We passed some 'Kettle Lakes', created as glaciers retreat and leave huge chunks of ice behind that melt and form deep lakes with excellent reflections. On arrival at Franz Josef we did a short walk which took us to a lookout at the foot of the glacier- fab! We then had a briefing for our glacier hike the following day before checking into our hostel- Rainforest Retreat. The thing we liked most about it was that it had a hot tub. Nothing nicer than sitting in a hot tub surrounded by snowy mountains!!!

Got up early the following day ready for our hike. Unfortunately the weather had turned monsoon-like and it was tipping it down. Suppose at the time we thought it added to the fun of hiking up a glacier. At the centre we were kitted out in a rainjaket, waterproof trousers, huge boots with removable ice talonz, mittens and wollen hats. We looked quite the part even if i did weigh a stone heavier. Whilst getting ready for the hike, Nathan our friend from home and sydney walked into the centre and it turned out he was hiking with us- such a small world.

Before getting to the glacier we had to trek through the forest and my feet were soaked through before we'd even started climbing. Ben and I tried to get into the 'fast ' group as we didnt want to be held up but ended up nominating ourselves into the slow group as everyone else had had the same idea as us and didnt want to be held up.It took us around 2 hours to get onto the front of the glacier. The beginning was really steep and slippery, the steps carved out for us by the group infront of us had been washed away as the rain was now being blown horizontally across the glacier. Even though the rain was quite miserable, it did add to the scenery. The mountains surrounding the glacier were covered in heavy waterfalls, it was amazing. The glacier itself is beautiful, clear blue ice, small little streams of water tricking through all the cracks etc. Unfortunately the weather turned really bad and the valley below (which we'd used to walk to the glacier) had flooded. It was too dangerous to carry on so we had to turn around before we got to explore all the caves and crevaces. Everyone was disappointed and whilst we stopped as the decision to turn around was being made- thats when the cold hit us!!! We were freezing, my toes sat in puddles of water and it was just miserable. We did stop at one cave on the way down but to be honest the rain and cold was so bad, people just wanted to get back. Our lunch was soaked through and for a while it looked like our camera was broken. We did all get $20 refund back- not much but better than nothing. Got straight in the hot tub to warm up as the showers in the hostel were awful.

Got a really nice pizza that night before I headed to bed. Ben stayed up to have a 'quiet' goodbye drink with Nathan. Wasnt so quiet when he rolled in at 2am!!! I, however found it funny when I had to wake him up at 6am having had only 4 hours sleep- he deserved it!