By late afternoon, of the next day, we had reached our destination of Franz Josef Glacier which, coincidentally, is in the city of Franz Josef Glacier. It was absolutley pouring with rain so we set up camp and had an early night which, as it turned out, was much needed! The next day we took the 15 minute drive up to the glacier itself. The glacier, 12 km long and terminating 19 km from the Tasman Sea, made it visible from about 2 kms away and, in fact, hindsight would teach us that this is probably the most memorable view. Along the way we could see the signposts that marked where the glacier would have reached over the last 5 centuries. However, somewhere between where the glacier would have been on 1756 and the most recently constructed viewpoint a mighty thunderstrom erupted and we could see no more of the glacier. Or anything for that matter! After a couple of hours of waiting in the rain and wind, without the tiniest break in the sky we decided to call it quits and try again the next day.

Arriving back to the town we were both soaking wet, tired and grumpy and in desperate need of a shower and a launderette. We decided to book a room for the night in a small log cabin in town. We spent the evening relaxing in the hot tub and taking full advantage of the mosquito free room and comfortable bed! The next morning provided no better weather and although we tried our hardest to get a better view of the glacier, hiking for 2 hours to the 'best' viewpoint, our efforts were in vain. We did not have another day to spare at the glacier towns and couldn't risk another foggy day at any rate so we drove through Fox Glacier and caught a glimpse or two of the ice as, occasionally, the clouds and mist would break. We drove late into the night until we reached Te Anua, about a 9 hour drive South of the Glaciers at the bottom of Milford Sound Road, where we spent the night. The following day would prove to be quite a day!

We set off early for our drive up the Milford Sound Road, keen to avoid as many tour buses as possible. The Road is a 60km drive leading up up the infamous Milford Sound, New Zealand's famous fjord and Rudyard Kipling's "eighth wonder of the world." Along the drive we witnessed literally hundreds of waterfalls trickling like tiny capillaries down the sides of the mountains that overlook both sodes of the road. Further up the road these 'capillaries' eventually turned into ice and snow at the side of the tarmac as the temperature dropped. Finally reaching Milford Sound we made our way to the pier and haggled a good price for a boat ride on and around the fjord. At first the boat ride appeared disappointing; a smooth ride along a small coast with only two small mountains in the distance as scenery. However, floating inbetween the mountains, through the gap into open water surrounded by a huge mountain range, produced something akin to DisneyWorld!

Hundreds of cascading waterfalls came crashing down into the turquoise blue below, mountains of all shapes and sizes framed the water and produced a natural skyline New York and Sydney would be envious of. Our Captain took it upon himself to steer directly under a number of the large waterfalls, soaking us completely but demonstrating the force of the water as it rushes down from the tops of the mountains. The wildlife at Milford Sound is particularly impressive, home to a number of native beautiful birds: the Kea bird, for one, is a memorable character. Known for its cheekiness and ability to destroy anything it gets its curoius little beak on, car owners and motorcyclists are fighting a losing battle with Kea and often go home without seat covers or rubber seals! We were fortunate enough to see 4 of these birds and after posing for a number of pictures they proceeded tp chase us back to the van. The drive back down the Milford Sound Road was just as exciting as the ride up and we stopped to see the mirror lakes - huge lakes so still they reflect everything from clouds to mountain ranges - before noticing how low the fuel gauge had got. We were left with no choice but to drive, off route, to a small town which advertised 'emergency fuel.' We had to pump the petrol ourselves from a hole in the ground but it was enough to get us safely to the next gas station. We drove further south towards Lake Haruku and arrived at New Zealand's deepest lake by mid afternoon, again in the pouring rain. We stayed in the van, hoping the torrential downpour would soon subside and fell asleep during our long wait, only to find, when we awoke, that the battery had died during the last few hours. Although the finger of blame was never pointed the evidence would suggest Daniel had left the lights on. Without being too worried, we were, nonetheless, 30kms from the nearest town, a long walk through thick forest in the cold rain which neither of us planned in trekking. There was no one else in sight and by midnight we began to wonder who would visit the lake in this kind of weather? We decided to wait until morning and come up with a plan then (although I sectretly knew the plan would involve Dan walking to the nearest town to get a spare battery! After all, I didn't leave the lights on!). Luckily, in the morning, a tour coach, who had taken an unplanned detour, passed by and we managed to flag it down and use their jump leads to get us back on the road again.

Thought of the Day: No road is long with good company.