Franz here we come

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Today up bright and early no problem, about 8am ish and the coach was due to leave at 9am. We were heading to Franz Josef. YAY…A place we have both been looking forward to because of the amazing scenery and the glacier walk which I cant wait for.

We took a short trip to a place called Pukekura. We stopped and went into a café/museum of a famous guy that used to catch the deer in New Zealand when they were ruining the countrys rainforests. It all started when they tried to introduce mammals on here as it was only birds that were on the island. The put a few animals, possums, deer and a couple more, they soon realised that the possums were killing everything and they still have a hold over them now, if you see one, you kill it/ run it down etc. Anyways, this guy called phil used to hunt the deer, they used to just try and stop them, multiplying as they were taking over. They managed to find a place that wanted to buy the venison - Germany. The price per deer soon racked up to $2000 and they found the best way to kill and move them was by helicopter, they would scour over the mountains and shoot them down. The helicopter business took off big time and this has helped in the way New Zealand now operates today. Once they realised they were killing too many deer they needed to find a solution. Soon after they realised that they should farm the venison and monitor the way they reproduce, this started with basically jumping off the helicopter and rugby tackling the deer to the ground. Thus capturing it with minimal damage as they were trying not to hurt them just monitor and take control of the amount in the country. The ludicrous jumping was soon exchanged for the new invention of the New Zealanders - the net gun, basically they shoot a net out of the helicopter, the deer get caught up in it and then they take them away. This proved to be such a good idea and working so fantastically that the yanks soon heard about it and hired 3 New Zealanders to move some moose into a protected Indian reserve.

After that we arrived at Franz Josef and booked our full day hike up the Franz Josef Glacier. It was a full day trip that hopefully isn’t as hard as the Tongariro Crossing. Im not too sure what to expect but I hope its going to be fun.

We checked into our rooms, and to our surprise there were the girls that we have been travelling with Lizzy and Jas; then of course Ben, Charmaine and me. A room where everyone knew everyone. These rooms are much better as you can leave your stuff out and know that nothing is going to go missing, bearing in mind we have known these people most of the way now.

From 7pm til 9pm is happy hours and its like $4 for a pint, yes a pint, usually over here you done get pints and they are even more than $4 so was a relief and a lovely sight to see! Charmaine had her wine…and in happy hour the wine is $3 for a full glass…..MENTAL. We ended up buying some drinks during happy hour which lasted until about 10:30pm then back to the room for an early night. Man we cannot wait until tomorrow…its gona be good, I just hope my expectations aren’t too high.

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