Preying that the gods were on our side last night and for this morning for the heli hike, such a shame we couldn’t get up there yesterday but at least we got to see the glacier from 600metres up and not so far away. 8.30am we got over to the heli hike base only for them to tell us the exact news we did not want to hear, the heli hikes are cancelled (probably for the next week) because of the forecast coming in and it being too dangerous for the heli copter to...

We left and hour earlier than usual from Lake mahinapua this morning because the weather was going to hold up and allow us to do some hikes to see the Franz Josef glacier, Rob the bus driver has tried his hardest at getting spots for us to do the heli hike this afternoon before the possibility of a cancellation tomorrow from the weather forecast but he hasn’t had any luck unfortunately. We sped on down the very very empty highway, it’s so bizzare how quiet ...

Cracking night sleep cozied up under a sheet, fluffy blanket and duvet! Ready to get up and go to the next stop though because there’s nothing here and it has a sort of waiting in the middle sort of stop (neither here or there). We had a few stops along the way, one was to the pancake rocks along the shoreline, that was pretty cool. They’re 35 million old limestone rocks that are layered in what looks like stacks of pancakes. Scientists don’t know why the...

A late check out this morning which meant we could have a lie in in our ten bed private dorm. Awesome! We need some room mates now to keep us sane; we are going a little senile now. We packed up and went for breakfast on the front, absolute beauty of a day again! The sun was beaming and there was no wind again - we are finally being spoilt with this beautiful weather and it really makes the scenery look even better! The bus was empty again, only 17 of us on i...

Another first for Ellie today, kayaking! Haha I keep winding her up that I’m going on my own and she’ll have to paddle her own, at sea, where there’s sharks and seals. Woohoo we couldn’t wait! Our bus picked us up for 8.30am and took us over to another town closer to the national park before we met three more girls and our kayak instructor. Ellie was lucky, they only had double kayaks. I was on steering. But kayaks I haven’t seen before, they had peda...