After we left Mum & Dad we made our way back to Christchuch. It seem's a really nice city, with a very european feel to it. It even has a River Avon running through it which you can take a punt down ! We decided to cross over the Island to the West coast, along Arthurs pass. It's a very scenic drive, across the Southern Alpes apparantley. Apparantley because as we left sunny Christchuch on about 29 'C the wind started to really blow, so much so that I was scared the van would be blown off the road !. Then as we got closer to the mountains really thick low cloud surrounded us and it chucked it down. So sadly we couldn't see too much, but even in the miserable weather you could tell it must be gorgeous on a clear day. We stopped at the village of Arthurs pass and found a DOC camp (bit like a forestry run site in the UK). The rain didn't stop the whole time we were there, so we set off early the morning hoping for a change in the weather. We got to the west coast and although we planned to go South, we had been told it was worth a detour North to the pancake rocks. They are a series of outcrops of limestone which have been eroded in such a way as to resemble a stack of pancakes. There are also lot's of caverns and passage ways where the sea water rushes up and spouts out the top. For once we were thankfull that it was blowing a storm !. As we approached you could hear a really loud rumbling roar, a bit like a dragon in a cave (probably!). The sea was really rough and gave us quite a show, huge plumes of water were shooting up all around us. We then headed back in the right direction along the west coast highway and stopped in Hotika. It was still raining and if anything, even harder !. We found a cheap backpackers as it's not much fun in the van when it's chucking it down. Hotika is the self proclaimed Jade centre of NZ, there are loads of shops selling the stuff, Mrs Wilson had to be kept on a short leash !. The next day we made our way to the Franz Joseph glacier. It's a beautiful area, with the mountains rising straight from the sea. Due to this it's also very wet !. London recieves about 500mm of rain a year, Franz Joseph recieves 5000mm !!!!. They can have as much as 1000mm in 24 hours !! This is the reason why the glacier is able to be there at such a low altitude. Normally you wouldn't expect to see glaciers much under 3000m above sea level. But the Franz Jospeh has a very unique micro climate. ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION ! Warm air flows over the Tazman sea, evaporates and forms clouds. These clouds start to move overland and would normally gradually rise, but the mountains create a blockade, this causes the clouds to stall and dump their contents over the mountains in the form of snow at the higher altitude and rain down below. It means that Franz Jospeh is one of the few glaciers in the world not to be retreating. We decided that as we were there it would be great to get up on the glacier and the best way to do this is via helicopter ! The weather forecast wasn't great, but we picked out Friday morning as our best bet. So we spent the next two days keeping our fingers crossed. Friday morning arrived and the weather was great, perfect blue skies and amazing views of the mountains and glacier. I think Sam was a bit nervous of going up in a helicopter, or getting her head chopped off as she got in ! Girls !. Anyway off we went, the pilot took great pleasure in turning around and chatting to us, as we were zooming towards the cliffs !. His party piece as we found out later, was to fly very close to a ridge and drop down the other side in a steep dive. The views of the glacier were amazing, it's also an incrediably clean glacier and so looks picture perfect in shimmering whites and blues. We landed and doned crampons, Peter our guide then led and way and we scrambled after him. It really was amazing, the ice was sparkling and had the most brilliant shades of blue. The bluer the ice, the more pressure it has sustained and therefore the less oxygen left in it. I imagine you'd get a similar feeling on the moon, a totally alien environment but extremely beautiful. Peter found some ice caves, which occur due to the pressure forcing the ice apart. We scrambled through them and although we got soaking wet, it was a breathtaking experience. After about two hours the helicopter picked us back up and flew us back down to the town. As we landed we could see the rain clouds forming and realised how lucky we'd been.