Having An Ice Time

Just so you can picture where we are right now, we're sat in our van enjoying the latest fixation in our lives - Boysenberry ice cream!

We now only have one week left in New Zealand which feels hard to believe, the last month has just flown by. At the beginning of last week we went to Franz Josef in order to climb the glacier there, interestingly named Franz Josef Glacier. Opting for the 'All day ice adventure' we rocked up, kitted ourselves out in boots, waterproofs and crampons and headed out to tackle the beast. Boys being boys we pushed our way to the front (well actually, Matt pushed us to the front) in order to be in group one - the fastest group which would lead the pack - and we began our hike up into the ice, a path being cut out for us by our pickaxe wielding guide.

I'm loathed to overuse the word but I think it's fair to describe the sights and experience as awesome, crawling, climbing and sliding our way up and down the ice, through and into tight crevices (insert your own 'ooh er' jokes here) and whilst it was quite a work out we loved every second, although my feet weren't thanking me for it at the end of the day!The photos won't purvey the sheer scale of the thing but rest assured it's pretty bloody big.
We also visited Fox Glacier, didn't climb it, didn't buy any mints, did have a photo taken though.

From here I hobbled down south to The Catlins. A place to stop and chill out for a few days to break up the driving (New Zealand is slightly larger than the UK and we've been to the north, south, east and west, as well as a few trips inland) as quite a lot of our time gets spent in the van. As an aside, considering the size of New Zealand compared to the UK, their population is approximately 4.2 million compared to our 60.5 which means there's plenty of space out here for everyone, although they do have 39.3 million sheep to make up for it (a haven for sheep worriers if ever I heard it).

In the Catlins we based ourselves in Curio bay, in the most secluded of camping spots amongst tall grasses and between two beaches. On one side of us we had a place to laze and take swims with the resident (wild) dolphins that shared the bay with the locals and tourists, and on the other side of us was a petrified forest (I still don't know what had happened to scare it so much) and the very rare Yellow-eyed penguins which we were able to watch up close in the evenings as they came out of the water, called out for their chicks and then threw up the contents of their stomachs for the little ones to feed on - Mmm, just-a like-a mamma used to make.

At night we sat and enjoyed the sunset before turning in and completing the cryptic crossword in the daily paper - another habit we've formed during our time here. Here's one to keep you going: How orchards produce profits (4,5).

From the Catlins we headed west again to visit Milford Sound in the Fiordlands. A tourist (and pesky Sandfly) hotspot, it's one of the places where it's necessary to join the hordes of other visitors and hop on a cruise to see the sights. Described by Rudyard Kipling as 'the eighth wonder of the world' it was certainly beautiful but I think the 'Jungle Booker' possibly over egged it slightly. However, we managed to get on a relatively small cruise (just 35 of us) which meant we spent a very lovely morning taking in the sights. Our mantra in New Zealand seems to be "what an amazing view" as they are just everywhere.It's the 12th February today and we haven't had a drop of alcohol pass our lips for thirty days. We had planned to keep going until Valentine's night and treat ourselves with a meal and a glass or 2 of wine but we have had to bring it forward by one day for reasons that I will let Matt explain in his next entry. It means that the drought ends tomorrow though, Hallelujah!

P.S. Apologies for the awful Petrified forest joke.