Franz Josef and Wanaka

As we arrived in Franz Josef it was grey and drizzling with rain, despite being only mid afternoon. Our hostel was cosy with a log burner in the common room and a hot tub in a shack outside - perfect, if the weather stayed so cool. That evening after we'd eaten dinner at a local pub we relaxed in the hot tub as it drizzled outside and chatted with a Canadian couple, exchanging travel stories and having a good laugh at some of the experiences we'd all had.

When we woke up the next morning there was heavy rain settled in for the day, but we continued with our plan and drove to nearby Okatigo Lagoon next to the coast, where we walked through beautiful wetlands to a lookout over the area. It was a good walk even if we did get soaked by the rain. We'd originally planned to do a longer walk around a nearby lake but because of the heavy rain we opted instead to just see it from the edge before we went back into the village.

We'd booked a tour for that afternoon with a company called Franz Josef Glacier Guides and planned to do their helicopter-hike, where we'd be flown to the glacier, dropped there for a three hour hike on the ice, then flown back down. When we arrived at the office it became apparent very quickly that we were out of luck with the weather, being told that all flights were cancelled for the rest of the day because the helicopters can't fly in the heavy rain. A bit disappointed we tried to book for the following day to do the same at fox glacier (a 30 minute drive away) and then went back to our hostel to sit by the log fire and to plan some more of our time in NZ beyond our basic itinerary.

After a few successful hours by the fire we donned our coat and walking boots again and drove to a nearby walk through a glacial valley that led up to the front of the Franz Josef Glacier. It was still raining heavily so half way through the walk as we cut through a stony, dry riverbed we were entirely sodden but got our first glimpse of the blue ice. We followed the path as far as we could and managed to see some more of the glacier although the cloud coverage lowered as we reached the best viewing area. We still enjoyed the walk and managed to see the glacier we'd wanted to hike!

After drying off by the fire for a while longer back at our hostel we were joined by our new Canadian friends in a walk 5 minutes outside of the village to a walk through the nearby forest. Geared up with torches we were hunting for glowworms and within minutes of looking we found an upturned tree trunk whose underside was covered with dozens of luminescent green dots! As we followed the track we found hundreds more, mainly through using a trick we'd learned at the hostel which was to wave the light at them then turn it off and make some noise. We probably looked mad but found what we were after and left to go back to a pub for a drink and to warm up, happy with our exploring.

The next day's weather was no better and we had a phone call at dawn to tell us the flights were cancelled again for the day, so took this as a cue to move on.

The destination of our road trip that day was Wanaka and along the way we had a few stops we wanted to make. Our first was Lake Matheson which is emblematic of the country's scenery, with views of snowy mountains in the distance above lush forest mirrored perfectly in the still water of the lake, when the conditions are right...which sadly they weren't when we arrived in the drizzle. The view obscured by thick cloud and the lake looking like any other, we didn't get to see what has drawn so many others to the lake so we continued our journey on.

Two further stops that day were at the Blue Pools, named so for the glacial blue water that sits aside a pretty river. A short hike took us to their location, including crossing two small suspension bridges across raging rivers (Beth did these without too much difficulty!) and on arrival again we were disappointed to find that the rain had caused a tributary river to swell and therefore the blue pools were a murky brown instead. We pressed on, starting to feel that the poor weather was going to ruin everything we wanted to see until we arrived at our last stop of the day where finally the bad weather had worked to our advantage. Their name is Thundercreek Falls, a huge set of very powerful waterfalls that you can hear roaring through the forested path to them from the car park. The rain high in the mountains had caused them to become even more powerful than usual, giving us a treat to see them in this way despite it being mid-summer here.

That evening we arrived into Wanaka as the rain finally began to ease. We'd dived into a restaurant to shelter and as we ate our Thai dinner the rain passed, giving us our first sunshine for days as we walked out. Before dinner we'd given up on the idea of looking around the town because of the weather but now the sky had cleared we went for a walk in the cool evening. We were so glad that we did.

The town sits next to Lake Wanaka, across which you have a view of a huge mountain range on top of which there are snowy peaks. The evening sun gave the vista a golden glow and despite it being decidedly cold now we sat on the stony shore of the lake and ate delicious Italian style gelato, taking in the view of the scenery that we'd been craving all day.

It had been a great way to end the day and as we woke the next morning the sun was still shining as we visited the nearby 'Puzzling World'. If you're like me you'll be really interested in mind puzzles, illusions and tricks of the mind - that's what puzzling world is! Five rooms are filled with mind-bending tricks which kept us confused for a couple of hours, then we headed outside into their 1.6km maze. We read all the instructions about the aim, which is to reach four coloured corner towers in order then escape the maze. It usually takes 30-60 minutes and involved a lot of walking. Honestly, we tried for about 15 minutes before giving up and leaving the maze through a shortcut-exit! In our defence though we managed three of the four towers!

Around the site they have plenty of fun photo opportunities and while part of the fun is taking the photos it's almost as much fun to watch the other visitors posing for them! Once we'd had enough of messing around we hopped back into the car for yet another road trip, this time with the blazing sun above us :)

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