Days 106 and 107

We caught the Naked bus for the 6 hour journey to Franz Josef, and it was nice to just relax and take in the scenery. We arrived in Franz Josef in the afternoon, and after checking in to Glowworm Cottages, we had a walk up a track that led to some local tunnels. Franz Josef is a very small village, and apart from the glacier tours there isn't much to do apart from walking, so we headed back to the hostel to chill out.

We had booked to do a half day glacier tour, and so after filling our bellies, and getting kitted out with walking boots and warm clothes we were ready. The tour started with a 45 minute walk to the terminal face of the glacier, before we were split into groups to tackle the stony climb to where the ice part of the glacier began. Once we had put clampons onto our boots our guide took us onto the ice. It was great fun and not too strenuous, and I even managed to stay on two feet! The ice is a really bright blue in colour because it is made up of compacted snow rather than frozen water, which means that light refracts off it in a different way making it appear blue. As we made our way down the glacier back to the valley we had a shock when there was a large rock landslide on the mountainside to the side of us. It was really noisy and created a huge plume of dust, which made me panic as I thought the whole mountain was going to come down on us! We just about survived the rock slide and overall had a great day. To top it all off we got free entry (with our ticket) into the local hot pools that night. Jamie was in heaven as I think New Zealand has been a little too cool for his liking, and I was made to perish in the 40 degree pool as a result. In the middle of the night we both got another fright when a loud air raid-like siren went off, and as we didn't know what it was I started stressing that it was the signal of some sinister natural disaster.