Ice Ice Baby.

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After leaving Milford Sound, we drove up the West Coast to check out some of the mountains and glaciers throughout that region of the country. Our first night was at Mount Cook - the largest mountain in Australasia, and easily the coldest place we've been to on this trip. The temperature was probably about 4 degrees celsius in the morning, which may not sound that bad compared to the conditions in Nova Scotia right now... but it's supposed to be summer here. It sure didn't feel like it.

We did some hiking in the area, but didn't stay much longer as it was freezing and seems to rain there all of the time. We continued up the coast towards the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers, two of the biggest in New Zealand - as well as two of the most accessible. We were able to get right next to some of the ice at Fox, and you can literally watch chunks of ice melting off of the glacier and getting taken away in the river that runs from it

We also saw a lady who was all decked out in Dolce & Gabana (is that how you spell that?) take a nosedive off of a walking plank and end up covered in mud.

We camped overnight in a small village outside of Franz Joseph and then headed towards Abel Tasman National Park. The weather at this point had done a complete 180 and was back to the sunny, warm conditions that we had become accustomed to. We took did a 21km hike through the park on Friday, after taking a water taxi out onto the track. There's beaches and bright blue waters to your left for your entire walk.

We plan on camping in the park here until the middle of next week, where we'll head to Christchurch and get ready to fly out on the 22nd. I'll be stopping in Hawaii for a week before returning to Nova Scotia on the 29th of January, where it's back to slush and salt stains on everything you own. Never the less, I'm still looking forward to getting back home.

See everyone soon.

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Photos

Avalanche Advisory.
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Fox Glacier
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Franz Joseph Glacier.
Franz Joseph, NZ

Huddleston Glacier.
Mt. Cook

LA
Swingbridge over Falls River

Aqua Taxi
Abel Tasman Ntl Park

Mount Cook National Park
Campground.

Hike in Abel Tasman
View from the track

Comments

[Tammy Fulmore]

Touche
and we are looking forward to having you home! Enjoy your last couple of weeks, see you soon!

[Logan Daly]

Home
Brett you dont have to come home just for my birthday. Thanks though.