Fox Glazier

After a long and winding road journey we finally hit Fox Glacier around 7pm. The route to Fox was so secluded, there were no petrol stations or very few houses, but there were plenty of lakes, waterfalls & Rivers to admire as well as the beautiful farm animals (New Zealand's animals just look so healthy…their really beautiful!) we stopped to take many pictures along the way of the different waterfalls, rivers & Mountain views, the sun was shining & it just felt incredible…that was until it got dark, it's always miserable when you've been driving for a full day & it's getting dark with no end in sight…but we were in luck Fox Glacier Town was just around the corner, we stopped at a salmon farm just before & picked up our tea, fresh Salmon ummmmmmmm!! Arriving at Fox Glacier we laughed… we'd been driving all day to arrive at a small town no bigger than the length of our streets, it was filled with only an information centre, shop, café, pub & restaurant! Parts of the south island are so isolated but amazling cute all the same. We hadn't planned to stay at Fox long, so we stocked up on some salad bits to go with our Salmon & found somewhere to park up for the night. The next morning we awoke at 1pm!! Yes we know we couldn't believe it either, that's what happens when your two girls who don't set your alarm & stay up talking all night!

We hit the road, well the road we were parked on that took us up to the terminal face of Glacier, the sun was glorious as we walked the hours walk to the terminal face, we couldn't believe how cold it got as we got closer (yeah really…we should have known knowing it was ice!!) it was amazing to see a valley of ice situated between two mountains, it was huge & gave us some crazy thoughts about how it got here? stays here? (especially in the summertime) & was formed? It made us very excited to be walking Franz Josef Glacier tomorrow!!

Franz Josef Glacier

It didn't take all that long to get to Franz Josef, about an hour or so, when we arrived we were surprised to see that again the town was only about half a mile long but it did appeared slightly bigger than Fox. We headed to a motor camp to stay for the next two nights, we got through the grueling duties of empty waste, collecting water & emptying it from here we paid the owner, who was a really interesting man giving us loads of information of New Zealand's history & culture (he must be making a mint a motor camp is literally a car park with electric hitch up!!) from here we went into town & booked our six hour half day glacier hike for the next day….it was cold & would obviously be getting colder pretty soon, it was exciting! As to spend little money we spent the evening reading, well Lucy reading to Donz, its become something of a nightly ritual, firstly because Donz drops off pretty easily after a while & secondly because Jodi Picolt has the talent to captivate anyone who reads her books, hook line & Sinker!! The stories have become like blockbuster movies.

Today the big day! After a cereal breakfast shower & change we heading into town to get our kit on, we were given hiking boots, socks, over coats, gloves, & spikes for the ice, soon as all were changed we jumped on the bus towards the terminal face….boy was it hell of a hike, before we even hit the ice we were up & down ladders walking over cliff edges, in rivers, streams and forestry…..& then the terminal face (the face of the ice mountain) we all sat & listened to some instructions and fastened our spikes to our boots the came the awesome part 3 hours of up hill ice walking in blue ice waters, it was very cold but we met some really cool people in our group we laughed & some people fell reminding us of how dangerous it can be, after we sat ate our dinner (we had made a dinner of salad & realized how ridiculous that was to eat situated on ice everyone else had just bought chocolate or a sarnie, not us, Donzy was too cold to get hers out but Lucy sat freezing and attempted it….what a funny sight everyone laughed) fooled around & walked some more we headed back down to repeat the track back to the bus, everyone was in such high spirits they arranged to meet at the pub later. After a bottle of wine Lucy & Donz met some new found friends who offered to buy them a drink when we refused they lined up about 8 shots on the bar, thinking we were amazing we just shot them down they were full of chili powder!! The hottest thing we have ever drunk, guys were coughing blood, crying and shouting for milk shots, the barman stood laughing suggesting me & Donz seemed the most relaxed, he asked where we were girls from? Stating it didn't harm you that much, we thought……..god it did! but looking around obviously not as much as the rest of them.

Later that evening we met the band! A group of young lads from London (really nice guys, we had so much fun laughing with them, we had the same sense of humour) who showed us their talents on two guitars, they were simply amazing we have never heard anything like it before just truly talented….we look forward to buying their record soon!! Of course Donzy got carried away learning to play REM everybody hurts, they all sounded fabulous together!! It will be a night we will remember forever!!