The drive after leaving Greymouth was about as amazing as we thought it could get! We were inland now and climbing higher and higher into the mountains. We arrived in Franz Josef that afternoon and we drove straight to the Glacier (this was the Franz Josef Glacier). We took a walk down as near to the base of the Glacier itself as we could and managed to get a pretty good view of it and a few photos. It was spectacular, but this wasn't going to be good enough for us though and that afternoon we booked to climb the Fox Glacier, 30 minutes away, the next morning.

We found a campsite just slightly out of town and it was like being completely in the wilderness as we were surrounded by what felt like the jungle, from sights and the sounds around us! Completely different to anywhere else we'd stayed. The best thing about this was the sun came out for a bit, so for an hour or so we baked in the sun on a picnic table we'd manouvered to beside our camper. That afternoon we had a few beers to celebrate another amazing day and met a nice Italian guy who we chatted to for a while, but felt a bit tipsy as realised we'd skipped lunch, so James cooked us up a treat of hotdogs and salad to soak the beer up . . . next was bed as we had a big climb in the morning!

We woke early and had been biten to death for the second night on the trot! Bloody sand flies are everywhere in the South Island, and apparently get worse the further south you get - great! We left the campsite by 8am and drove to Fox Glacier. The tour was four hours, 1.5 hours climbing the moutains to get to the Glacier, an hour on the Glacier and 1.5 climbing down again! It was breathtaking and I got a few photos, but typically my camera battery died whilst I was on the ice! This tour was well worth the money and we're so glad we did it! We couldn't believe the ice doesn't melt . . . well actually it does gradually, but it means that the Glacier is actually growing - the guide said he'd not been down to the bottom for a month recently and when he did it had come forward about 25 metres!! Watch out for global warming guys - are we on our way to the next Ice Age!!

After the climb we had some lunch and drove pretty much non-stop to Wanaka. This was a continuation of our journey South down the West Coast and then we cut inland to Lake Wanaka. This was a cool town. Very small but it looked lively with plenty of bars and restaurants etc. We stayed quite far out of town though as there were no nearby campsites so we didn't sample the nightlife. Plus we were knackered from the climb, so we ate and went to bed for some much needed sleep!