Christchurch to Franz Josef 1st - 3rd February

So we had a car at this point, and thank god we did because we stopped almost every 30 minutes on our journey from east to west NZ, the scenery was overwhelming. We travelled from Christchurch through Arthur's pass in the Southern Alps to a small town called Hokitika. Other than eating some blue cod and trying but failing to spot the local penguins we didn't do much here except sleep and recharge for the next day, driving onwards to the glaciers.Our journey to the Franz Josef glacier included as many stops as the previous journey but this time unfortunately we were eaten alive by sandfly making for an uncomfortable nights sleep on our first night in Franz Josef. However in the morning we fresh and ready for our 8 hour trek up onto the glacier. The glacier was an incredible, thing to behold, a beautiful and vast mixture of so many different colours, definitely worth 4 hours of walking uphill with ice spikes (crampons) on.The beer and spa after our day of hiking was well received, as was a hearty meal and bed, not so many problems sleeping on this night. The next morning (January 4th) we hit the road again sadly waving bye to the glaciers.

Love Alex and Sophie xxx