New Zealand South Island, Week 7

After the tranquil and serene surroundings of Doubtful Sound it was time to shake things up a little so we set our sights on Queenstown, New Zealand's adrenaline capital. Dave wasted no time and was soon flinging himself from tiny cablecars suspended at ridiculous heights with only a tiny amount of elastic between him and the very hard ground. I refused to go anywhere near the place so poor Dave had to go by himself but luckily a friend working at AJ Hackett's provided him with all the proof he'll ever need.

Please see video for more madness.

Apart from all that hire wire nonsense Queenstown was an agreeable place to spend a few days. Before we left we ate a top notch curry, flew down a few of the rivers on one of the jet boats, and took in the views from the Crown range which surround the town.
We crossed these hills to the smaller town of Wanaka, where during our first investigation of the town we stumbled across a live radio broadcast and enjoyed a very random night drinking beer, listening to rock and communicating across the airwaves to the New Zealand public. Mount Roy was our intended target the next day and it proved to be quite a challenge after a evening meal of beer and biscuits the night before. After 2 and a half hours of climbing, more climbing and then just a little bit more climbing we reached the top and slumped in a heap to admire the fantastic views.
We left Wanaka behind and drove through the Haast pass enjoying waterfalls, thundering rivers and strange moon in the middle of the day landscapes.
Things catch on fast in New Zealand and we spotted this beach overflowing with hundreds of piles of stones, a very strange sight from the roadside.
Not wanting to shun a tradition we built our very own piles to add to the collection.
We arrived in the town of the Fox Glacier and headed straight to the glacier face, a sight made even more incredible by the fact that the glacier ends among lush rainforest. Even at this level we could catch glimpses of the amazing blue ice and appreciate the immenseness of the ice.
The next morning we crossed this precarious swing bridge to make our way to the Old Chalet view point which is the historic access point onto the glacier.
We walked through lush rain forest and crossed small creeks while steadily climbing up to what we hoped would be a great view of the glacier. We eventually reached a rather large stream which took us about 20 minutes to find a crossing point, but were rewarded with a great view over the glacier on the other side.
Another day, another glacier; this time Franz Josef and an altogether different experience. We booked ourselves onto the full day glacier hike, pulled on our warm weather gear, strapped our crampons on and headed for the glacier. Our day started with a climb up the glacier face and eventually onto the ice itself where we delved into crevasses and ice caves before heading for the ice falls which is where the ice forms into great waves. We stopped for lunch and then climbed up and over a few of these huge bodies of ice, squeezing between walls of ice and practicing the Franz Josef shuffle down the vertical sides, eeekk!
We spent an amazing day on the ice and arrived back in the town of Franz Josef ready for beer and food.