With trepidation we opened the curtain as the morning alarm went off, hoping for clear skies so that we could do the heli hike on our last day before we had to leave for the next leg of our journey. Cloudy, but no rain, so we were still nervous as we entered the office at 9:15. A few minutes later we got the great news that the trip was confirmed and we started getting kitted out with climbing boots, all-weather coats and crampons. The flight there was amazing,...

We woke up on Valentine's Day with such high hopes of celebrating in style with a helicopter ride and a hike along the glacier. Unfortunately, and not for the 1st time on this trip, the weather had other ideas and our 11:45 trip was cancelled. So we rebooked for tomorrow and tried to make the most of today. We drove as close as possible to the Franz Josef glacier terminal and then made the hour-and-a-half round trip walk to around 100m from the end of the glacie...

Very little to report today other than a 5 hour drive from wanaka to Franz Josef glacier village on the west coast in the pouring rain. Unfortunately, the torrential rain didn't ease up all day-apparently this is quite normal for the region as they can get up to 15 metres of rain a year!

After a lie-in and a stroke of smokey, the lovely hostel cat at the YHA in Wanaka, we headed out to Puzzling World, a nearby attraction with a giant 1.5km maze (to get lost in!) and lots of illusion rooms. We left feeling decidedly giddier than before so headed back to wanaka for some quality relaxation by the lake and a tasty thai meal to finish off the day.

On our fourth attempt, the weather finally allowed us to see Milford Sound today. We boarded a 9 seater plane for the 40 min scenic flight over the mountains to Milford Sound then hopped on a nature cruise for 2 hours. Unfortunately, we didn't see any dolphins but we did spot lots of seals and were not disappointed with the breathtaking scenery around the sound. After flying back to Queenstown, we decided to head straight to Wanaka and chose the shorter (and som...