Our first stop in the South Island was a town called Nelson. We don't have that much to say about it because we spent our time out in the Abel Tasman National Park - New Zealands newest and smallest NP and one of the most popular places for Kiwi's to spend Christmas. We took a cruise up the coast to the far end of the park passing the famous Split Apple Rock (see photos) and a small seal colony (also see pics) along the way. Because of the very high tide that happened to coincide with our trip we managed to scrape our way up a small river which can only be accessed once a month. The view from the boat was quite spectacular and we could only imagine what an amazing place it would be in the summer when you didn't have to wear thermals and hoodies to keep warm (see pics)!

The boat then cruised back down the coast before dropping us off in Bark Bay. From here we walked (tramped as the locals would say) 9.5km to meet the boat in Anchorage some time later. On the way we got to see some great views of the varying coastline far below, one minute all you could see was jagged rocks then the next would be golden beaches. Before heading off to catch our boat home we had a small picnic on one of the beaches - not a bad place to have some lunch!

We had an overnight stop in Greymouth before stopping in Franz Josef. The main attraction was the Glacier on which you could half day, full day or heli hike. The Franz Josef Glacier is one of only three glaciers in the world that flow into a rainforest - Fox glacier 30km away is the second and the third is in Argentina somewhere. We chose the half day hike, in hindsight probably the best choice. After getting kitted up with boots, socks, crampons, hats and gloves we were driven to the river basin, from there it was a 40 minute walk to the front of the glacier. They split everyone into 3 groups and we found ourselves in group 1 (the brisk paced group)! We spent approx 2 hours on the glacier and passed through narrow crevices, holes in the ice and up steep ice steps. Throughout the hike the guides were re-cutting tracks and checking the handlines as the glacier is continually melting. The routes used change from week to week in accordance with the glaciers movements, at the moment it is in a period of regression. just as we started our descent off the glacier we came across some Kea (Alpine Parrots), these clever little critters fly onto the ice looking for food. They have been known to team up together and attempt to steal food from unwitting tourists, one distracts whilst the other opens backpacks which have been put down on the ice. The hike was a brilliant new experience that both of us really enjoyed, if we had the money we would definately try the Heli Hike.