Yesterday morning once up and showered, a few of us decided to take a quick walk to Lake Mahinapua for a photo opportunity before we departed down south to Franz Josef. Lake Mahinapua is a shallow lake which was formerly a coastal lagoon, but the buildup of coastal dunes made it an inland lake roughly 500 m from the Tasman Sea coastline. It's also home to a large variety of bird life in the area. We were rather pushed for time, since our bus was about to leave, but enough to be able to enjoy the setting of the lake, take a couple of photos, then head back before pulling out of the Lake Mahinapua Hotel, aka the Poo Pub.

Once on the bus and heading south, our first stop and for lunch was at the Bushman Centre, about a half hour drive down from Lake Mahinapua. We spent a bit of time walking around the centre, and watched a video relating to how people of the west coast used to make a living of helicopter deer recovery, old timber-milling techniques and possum trapping.

After that rather interesting stop we then continued onto Lake Mapourika, about an hour further south from the Bushman Centre. It lies just north of Franz Josef Glacier - our final destination for the day. Since the water from glacial-melts no longer drains into the lake, the lake is filled with fresh rain water which runs though the surrounding forest floor, collecting tannins, giving it its dark colour. The surrounding mountains shelter the Lake Mapourika from winds so the water is left undisturbed and gives it quite a reflective look to it, known as a reflective lake apparently.

By yesterday afternoon, we arrived in the small town of Franz Josef - tiny in size but huge in population. The population of the town is only about 330, which is an increase of 9 from 2001. So not the biggest town I've been to. However, tourism here is what keeps the town going, with about 2000 tourists a day in the town, usually here to visit the Franz Josef Glacier no more than 5km from the town centre and also the Fox Glacier which is about half an hour away. After arriving in town, a few of us had initially planned to go kayaking later on in the afternoon, but after getting to our accommodation we all changed our minds and instead decided to hang around the town and chill out there for the afternoon. Especially with the next day being a pretty big day out on the glacier.

Then last night for dinner it was over the road (well actually just over the gravel parking lot) to the Monsoon Bar, which it's tagline slogan of "Monsoon Bar and Restaurant: it rains ... we pour". That night was also the Italy vs Russia game... followed by a pub game of Rock Paper Scissors, where the winner won themselves a bungy jump in Queenstown a few days later when we got there. Not bad for a simple game of Rock Paper Scissors. Unfortunately I was out in the first round. Well I say unfortunately, not so sure I'm all that keen on the bungy jump anyway :)

Then today was our big glacier day hike, probably the best day of this holiday so far! The glacier was absolutely stunning and like nothing I've quite experienced before! Most of our Kiwi Bus group signed up for the full day hike and we were split into groups of no more than 11 in size. We opted for the first group, the quicker and more physical group, with leader Zach talking us up the glacier. It also meant that since we were the first group, we would set the route up the glacier, by cutting steps and paths into the ice as we moved forward, which the second and third groups would follow.

With all of us in our own groups, we headed off to the drop off area not all that far from the base of the Franz Josef glacier, and started our walk towards it. After a kilometer or so we reached the base, where flimsy yellow ropes marked the border between where it's safe for ordinary tourists to go and where you need a guide to venture. We then started off with a steep climb up a glacial moraine. At the top of these big pile of rocks, we stopped to attach our crampons (metal spikes) to our boots, and had a bit of practise to actually walk in boots with crampons attached - something I'd never done before. Not that we were able to walk and climb the ice, we set off again, this time on the ice.

We then spent the next couple of hours following our guide all over the face of the glacier. We climbed up and down ice staircases, both which we'd cut and made ourselves, as well as stairs created by previous groups the day or two before, as well as peeked into ice caves, saw plenty of waterfalls, and learned all about ice and how it is ever-changing and moving. The colours around us were amazing, between the perfectly blue sky, the green of the mountains either side of the valley and then the ice under our feet was about 20 different shades of whites and blues; glassy and beautiful. Really was quite something!

After a few hours, we were only a fraction of the way up the glacier - which apparently you'd need a few days to actually make it by foot to the top. But during those few hours, we had walked past caves, climbed through glacier tunnels, being wedged in the smallest of gaps and cut out way up the glacier until we reached a decent view point to allow us to look back at the enormity of the glacier below and around us. Just stunning!

Getting back down was easy, since we headed off to the one edge of the glacier and took a shortcut down, with very little effort required other than cutting a few steps now and then. Every so often we'd turn around to admire the glacier and had plenty of photos taken, but no matter how decent the camera, it still doesn't quite show up the vast expanse of ice which makes up the glacier.

Once back at the hostel, a good shower and a coffee, it was back over the Monsoon Pub for the Japan vs Tonga, which was a fairly OK game to watch, with Tonga beating Japan by 31 points to 18. Unfortunately tonight I hit a wall and landed up fading earlier than I wanted to, just wasn't up for much of a big night. It was David and one of the Aussie girl's birthdays, so a bit gutted I missed out on that one, but no doubt there'll be more to come the closer we get to Queenstown, which I'm really looking forward to! Hopefully I'll be back on full form again from tomorrow.