This is a bit of a catch up session, as we have been off the radar for a couple of days. We are now actually in Invercargill on the south coast, and it's the evening of Sunday 11 th March here already, but this is to update you about our amazing heli-hike on the Franz Josef Glacier on Thursday (NZ time). We had a leisurely start to the day, waking up to clear blue skies and sunshine over the mountains - lovely. We headed into town at about 11.00 and checked in for our flight at the main office (and had to be weighed, so they could balance the "load" in each helicopter, so that was a bit embarrassing!) There was a DVD playing on a large screen, of a helicopter flying over the glacier and people hiking over the ice, so Tony said that'd spoilt it for him, because now it wouldn't be a surprise! But before he had time to complain too much, we were escorted accross the road to a small portacabin, where we were issued with enormous ice - boots, a waterproof coat, and a bum-bag containing crampons.

We were chatting with some of the other people while we were waiting, and met a girl whose parents live in Nursery Road in Meopham! Small world! We had a safety briefing, and were divided into groups of 4 - 6 for 4 different helicopters. We were in the 3rd load, so it was exciting to see the other groups fly off in their helicopters, becoming tiny specks in the distance, as we waited for our turn. Soon we were off, flying at a very disconcerting angle and swooping over the mountainside, luckily it was really noisy, and we all had earphones on, so I don't think anyone heard me saying "OH MY GOD!" as I slid from side to side, really thinking I might fall out through the windows, which seemed unnecessarily large. We flew up to the top of the glacier, over huge crevasses, and then down to a lower level, where there was a small patch of fairly smooth ice for the helicopter to land on. We clambered out and slithered our way over to where the rest of the group and our 2 guides were waiting. We got shown how to strap our crampons on, and after a few minutes of getting used to walking about in them, split into 2 groups of 10 people per guide, then we set off, stomping over the ice. It was amazing, the sky was so blue, and we had really clear views in all directions over the mountain and the glacier sparkling in the brilliant sunshine. Our guide was very informative, and showed us where to find small ice caves and tunnels. Tony crawled and slid through them and came out streaked with grey glacial mud and grazed knees, (because of course he was wearing shorts)! We hiked up the glacier to a waterfall, the surface ice dripping everywhere and turning to slush under our feet. There was no danger of it melting too much though, as it's about 500m thick!. On the way back down, some of the caves and tunnels we had been in had filled with water, so I was glad we had the guide to show us the safest routes. We had 2 hours hiking over the ice, and then the helicopter came to fly us back down. I was a bit shocked when I had to sit in the front for the return journey - I think the pilot was a bit worried too, as I banged my head on some of the control switches on the ceiling as I got in, and he gave a bit of a sigh as he re-set them! Luckily there wasn't too much swooping on the way back, more of a steady descent, but, if I'd known him better, I would have told the pilot I thought he was flying a bit too close to the mountainside! Scary!

We returned to our camper van and had a well earned late lunch in the car park, enjoying the sunshine, and getting ready for the next leg of our journey. We were heading for Haast, further down the west coast, but en route stopped for an hour's walk to Lake Mathieson, famed for its views of Mount Cook, and picture perfect reflections of the mountain in its very still waters. (See photo above). Along the walk, we could see people stopping to sniff the foliage, and heard several of them comment on the wonderful lemon aroma everywhere. In the end, I had to explain politely that the smell was actually Tony, (AKA "Citronella Man") who had doused himself liberally with a citronella and almond oil Sand-fly repellant!!

When we arrived at the Haast River Top 10 camp site, I was a bit dubious at first, as it looked a bit like a gravelly car park, and the shower block was in an aircraft hangar, but we had a brilliant time! We were welcomed with a free sachet of washing powder (maybe they were also overwhelmed by the scent of citronella!) and when we asked if there was anywhere we could go for a meal (as by now it was about 8pm, and getting a bit late to start cooking), they gave us free vouchers to have a free drink with our meal and said they would drop us round to the nearby Haast beach hotel when we were ready, and either come and pick us up later, or get one of the hotel staff to drop us home - awesome! We had a really good meal - I had a very large Tofu burger (the first time I've encountered anything vegetarian in NZ!) and Tony had a large lamb shank. We watched an amazingly red sunset from the deck outside, it looked like there was something on fire on the horizon, and had a game of pool after our meal, before getting a lift home. Can't complain at that!......