Wednesday morning we were up early after a decent nights sleep following Tuesdays exhilerating day. We departed Franz Josef at 8.30am and headed back to Fox Glacier airstrip to drop off some other crazy skydivers. The rest of the group headed to nearby Lake Matheson, where we enjoyed a walk around the lake shore, admiring the still waters clearly reflecting the mountains. After the walk we headed to the cafe for a cookie caramel slice and fruit shortcake. We left...

Wow what a day! This morning we had a lie-in, our alarms didn't go off until 9.00am, although Laura kept waking up in the night thinking that there must be something we have to get up early for! Once up. delighted with the lovely weather for a change, and ready we enjoyed a big breakie before heading into the town ready for our Helihike! We checked in at the glacier centre and after a brief delay we were taken across the road to the helicopter landing sites to b...

We were up and at reception by 9.00am this morning to get our transfer to Kaiteriteri Beach where we boarded our catamaran for our day exploring the Abel Tasman NP by sea. We spent the morning sailing to Archage Bay, stopping at 'Split Apple Rock' and enjoying complimentary coffee and biscuits. We also had the rare and unique opportunity of sailing into a gorgeous, lush lagoon, which they only get the chance to once or twice a month, due to changing tides. We ...

Yesterday morning we awoke at 7.30am to the sound of rain pouring! After breakfast we were ready to leave at 9.00am, we were delayed slightly by the loud, messy ones having to return to tidy the kitchen. Once underway we made a supermarket stop in Motueka, then drove straight through to Murchison where we ate our pack up (tuna sarnies). After another hours drive we called at a seal colony to look at the seals 'rainbathing!' We got soaked on the 15 minute return w...

This morning we got up at 6.00am (as quiet as poss, so as not to disturb Alex and the bloke in our room), checked out by 6.45am and were ready waiting for our 7.00am free ferry shuttle. We arrived at the ferry terminal about 7.30am and were luckily near the start of the queue to check-in, after us the line rapidly increased and annoying Nelson-girl pushed in with us and Jorste, how rude! By 7.45am we had checked in our rucksacks and on board the ex-channel ferr...