We rather eagerly left Greymouth early the next morning and started the journey to Franz Joseph. Although the weather was fine early on it quickly turned to grey skies and pouring rain.

Shortly after leaving Greymouth we stopped in Hokitika for breakfast and I think we were supposed to spend lots of money in one of the many jade factory shops there. But at 8:10am it was too early for that and we all sat around having coffee and waiting for the bus to come back.

We then stopped at a small gold-rush town called Ross. Where we saw a man walking his goat - or was it the other way round? Anyway, we went into the local museum and tried our hand at gold-panning out the back. We all found flakes of gold and a little piece of jade, but not enough to make our fortunes or buy lunch with. So we headed out of Ross, and saw the man walking with his goat and carrying some shopping bags on the way back...

We then stopped at the most bizarre 'museum' and cafe place. We paid a few dollars and went into the museum to watch a film about deer hunting and farming in NZ. The film was so bad it was good and was mainly about 'real men' running around the hills, jumping out of helicopters and killing deer. There were also many tongue-in-cheek exhibits about possums and hunting etc (see main pic, it was in the shop). They also had some cute wallabies and deer outside too. The guy running it also explained about the 2 types of possums they have here in NZ - round ones, and flat ones. So glad that's cleared up.

We then headed into Franz Joseph were the weather by this point was awful. A few people went off for the afternoon to do the glacier walk, but the thought of getting cold AND wet, opposed to just cold or just wet didn't really appeal to me. So I had a walk about the town, which killed 10 minutes. I then went back to cook a nice warm lunch and read etc. And in the evening a few of us curled up on the sofas (not together) as the rain was still pouring, and watched a DVD. We fancied Ice Age, but they didn't have it...

The next morning we departed for Wanaka. The first stop was at Lake Matheson, which looked great in the early morning sun and clearing rain clouds. We then stopped at Thunder Falls and then for lunch, where I had a famous NZ pie and a bottle of L&P. You couldn't get more Kiwi if you skinned a Kiwibird and eat the green flesh inside. That's why kiwi's are endangered you know, there's hundreds of headless ones in your local Tescos, they just taste so good...

After heading over the Haast Past we made our way down into Wanaka. We then had two options for an afternoon activity -

1) Skydiving

2) Puzzling World

Well you'll be pleased to know that I wasn't one of pussies who took the easy option. No. I went for the all-thrills options. It was a bit daunting at first. A group of us went together, we were a bit nervous, scared, wanted to stop but there was no going back. There were a few points when we thought we weren't gonna make it. And finally, we did it. We made it through the Puzzling World Maze. Alive. It's the first 3D maze y'know. All wooden fences, very hard to see over. Then there's stairs and bridges and different corners to get to first. Of course, there were a few who chickened out and went sky-diving, but whatever, not everyone can do it. At least I can say I did it and came out alive.

After the excitement of that and the various optical illusions and balance disturbing rooms, we got on the bus into Wanaka center, where the very nice lady from the hostel/5 star hotel I'm staying in came and collected me!!