To Wanaka

The weather changes as fast as my plans! We were awesomely awoken at 5:55am with a fire alarm. High five to that team member...dick head. So I laid around for a few hours until 8am and it was time to go.

I hiked the Franz Jospeh Glacier on the 22nd of March. Our group met at the glacier office at 9 to get all geared up. We got over trousers, gortex rain coat, socks, boots, cramp ons and a toque/mitts. So we all looked like a crew about to climb Everest or something.

We started out ascent on Franz Josef Glacier at 9:45am and it was a slight mist to drizzle. By the time we started actually trekking it was constant rain and blowing. Oh goodness it wasn't good weather at all. Now the glacier trek was amazing. Something I've never done before which was really cool. We strapped on our clamp ons and we were off! We walked and traversed about 600m and it took us approx 4 hours. We climbed into an ice cave which will only last about 3 weeks because this glacier is one if not the fastest moving glacier on the planet. I'm don't quite remember and don't want to give Uncle Frank the wrong info. It was a very long day and the majority of the path was our guide chopping out ice steps in the glacier to walk on. It was really a sight to see but at the end of the day I couldn't be bothered to pull out my camera and take pictures cause it was just plain ol' cold! To give you an idea how much rain we had, it rains about 7m a year here, when I got down I poured my backpack out because there was so much water inside and I rung my socks out!

I met a Canadian on the trek and we ended up having dinner with him and 8 more of us. It was so delicious and fun! We deserved a $7 beer after what we went through! We headed to the hot pools after that to soak away our aches and get ready for bed! When we got back to our room we put everything we wore into the dryer including our backpacks.

Today I am heading to Wanaka which is suppose to be a very underrated place along the way to Queenstown. I will probably spend one night here and spend 3 nights in Queenstown so I can figure out my visa situation. I don't have any pics from yesterday because I didn't take my iPod with me anywhere. But here are some pics of the drive and Wanaka. The weather is once again gorgeous and sunshiny! The drive is about 300km and follows the coast until it cuts through the southern alps and goes straight to Wanaka. We stopped off at Lake Matheson to take a hr walk and some amazing photos. Unfortunately I again forgot my iPod and only have pics on my camera. But trust me, you will be jealous when you see them. The 2 most beautiful peaks from Able Tasman and Mt Cook perfectly reflected on a mirror like kettle lake. Maybe just google search a pic of Lake Matheson and checked it out cause mate, it's sweet as.

My days have been filled so much with cartwheels down the middle of the deserted highway, swimming in kettle lakes, kayaking and doing the most unbelievable things!