COLD!!!

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So onto Franz Josef. The journey was long and pretty hairy in places. We had to use Arthur's's Pass, a single carriageway road through a series of mountain ranges. The weather had turned cold and the freezing fog was hanging in the valley. It was just like out of a scene of Narnia. Everything was white, Frozen dew hanging form every branch and glistening spiders webs twitching in the breeze. It was quite eerie. But very beautiful. The sheep were still in the fields along with cows munching on the hay and breathing out huge plumes of hot air.

Deer meat and fur is quite big out here and in most of the fields large herds of deer can be seen, all of this added to the feeling of being in the countryside, with only one or two cars passing every hour. We had to contend with grit and snow. Although most of the white stuff had been ploughed onto the sides of the road, the ice remained. The gritters had been out in force, but there was the added problems of chipped windscreens. And yes we now have several chips in our windscreen. Most of these caused by cars overtaking.

Anyway we eventually got to Franz Josef. The caravan park was nice and we stayed there for a while. The main reason for this was because we got snowed in. It was all very exciting. We booked the Glacier walk for the next day. The weather was pretty rubbish and had been raining since we arrived. The next day wasn't much better. We were supposed to be picked up in the morning by the walking company but we postponed for the next day due to the light drizzle that was still falling. To pass the time we all drove into town. The weather had turned bitterly cold and we took shelter in the small internet cafe. The next thing we knew the rain had turned to sleet and a thunderstorm had rolled into town. The thunder sounded pretty menacing. The lady in the shop warned of power loss. After another 10 minutes the snow started to fall. I wasn't too worried because the ground was so wet, the snow wouldn't possibly settle. How wrong was i! within twenty minutes a layer of snow covered cars and pavements. It came down in droves.

But it was snowing! we went into the street and had a snowball fight, even getting pelted by the locals! we went in to the local supermarket and made the best purchase of the whole holiday......An electric heater! We drove very slowly back to the campsite, commenting on how lucky we were not climbing the glacier today. The heater was a God send and kept our van warm for the evening.

The next day was bright sunshine. The company picked us up at 8:30 and took us to be kitted out at the shop. We were given socks, boots, over trousers and coats. Our guide, Gavin was form Ireland and took us up the glacier. We took a bus fitted with snow chains to the base of the glacier and walked for approximately 4 hours. The glacier was awesome and a series of steps had been carved into it allowing us access. The climb was hard even with talons (spikes put onto the base of our boots) We got some good pictures and the weather was perfect. By the end of it my feet were killing me. The boots had rubbed leaving burst blisters which were starting to bleed. I could hardly walk.

The next few days were pretty hard on my feet and i resorted to flip flops to help my heels heal.

When the roads were open we made our was to Lake Matheson, a lake which has the backdrop of Mt Cook. It was awesome. There was a short walk to get to the lake but it was well worth it. The water reflects the Mountains perfectly and looks just like a mirror.

Next stop (well major one) Queenstown.

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