Ice ice baby...

The bus ride to Greymouth was pretty awesome and I met a really nice bunch of people who were also booked in to do the brewery tour too.

The tour was of the local Monteiths Brewery and it was bloody brilliant actually. A taxi came and got us from the hostel and very nice chap showed us all around the actual brewery itself. I really enjoyed that and he was a very interesting guide. The best bit was the tasting room though. You're led into an area which is decked out like a bar and there are 6 beers and 1 cider available to taste. You're given a taste of all of them (most of them were lovely) and when you're done tasting, you can go up and serve yourself. You can basically have all you can drink in half an hour. It was a lot of fun and I still can't believe how generous they were. Part of your fee includes a meal at the nearby Railway Tavern and you can get jugs of beer for $6, so we happily continued our evening there.

The group were a really nice bunch and the great thing is that as we're all using the Magic Bus routes, some of us are travelling in the same directions, so I'm still seeing lots of familiar faces and those of us taking the same route are still hanging out.

We all had to be up early to catch the bus to Franz Josef the next day and surprisingly we were all pretty chipper considering the night before. On route to Franz, we stopped off at Punakaiki, which is home to the pancake rocks. This is a pretty awesome sight and the walkway takes you around the coast where the rocks are based. They are basically huge rock formations that look like a pancake stack, it's really strange looking, I've never seen anything quite like it. They won't last long though and it's predicted that eventually the sea will wash them away. Certainly not in our lifetime though, so you still have time to check them out should you be in this neck of the woods.

From Punakaiki it was straight off to Franz and myself and another guy called Iain was whisked off on arrival to the Fox Glacier to do a skydive. I booked it the day before and was really nervous I have to say. We arrived at this airfield and was ushered into a room to put on jumpsuits. A massive bloke then came in and told us what we needed to do when we're hanging out of the plane and harnesses were then attached. I was then straped to the same massive bloke and Iain was strapped to a much sexier guy, so I was a little envious. We practiced the jump position again and was then squished into the aircraft (which was like a VW Beatle with wings) and took off.

I was right next to the door and weirdly enough, my nerves went away as we flew higher. We flew over the Fox Glacier, which was worth the money in itself and we could also see Mount Cook and the surrounding area. Even though I've been here over 2 weeks now, I never stop being amazed by New Zealand. Once we reached a height of 12'000ft, the door was opened and out we jumped. I have to say it's one of the best and weirdest experiences of my life. We were free falling for 45 seconds before the shute was pulled and then glided slowly back down to earth. It was really surreal being 1000's of feet high without being incased in a metal tube, but I absolutely loved every minute of it. I wasn't aware of being that scared during the jump, but must have been on some subconscious level as the dude I was strapped to said in his lovely Kiwi accent "you have to let go of my arms Jo, I need to steer the parachute". I wasn't actually aware that I was still clinging to him, so just relaxed and hung off his front as we came into land.

Iain loved it too and he suggested we knock out two people who were waiting to go up and take their place. I was half tempted to be honest. Now, my jump was filmed and I will attempt to put it on Facebook very soon, but I am a bit shite on it. I'm not saying this because I screamed throughout most of the freefall, I'm pretty sure most people would in those circumstances, but it's the interview before I go up. When I asked for it to be filmed I didn't realise they would want a pre-jump interview, so when I was taken to the front of the plane and asked how I felt, I had no idea what to say. I just look really unenthusiastic and I could tell the guy was very disappointed in my lack of wooping. Someone should really publish a book called "Witty Things to Say Before a Skydive". I'm sure I would have looked way cooler...

I spent the afternoon settling in and exploring the very small town that is Franz Josef, it is basically 2 long streets. Lovely surroundings of course and you can see the top of the glacier from the town. In the evening, myself and another lady from the hostel decided to take a walk along a woodland trail near the hostel as we had heard that there are glow worms in there. We borrowed a torch from reception and set off. On the way we met a group of Filipino ladies who had come from the trail, but had no torch so couldn't go in. We invited them to join us and they were so much fun. We went quite deep into the trail, switched off the torch and lo and behold, there were loads of glow worms. It was a really beautiful sight.

Early start the next day as I was off on a full day hike up the Franz Josef Glacier. Amelia, who I met on the Magic Bus, came along too. They provide you with all of the equipment and a guide takes you up the glacier and back down again. It was hard going in places, but so bloody awesome. As the glacier is constantly changing, the guide has to hack in steps in places and attach ropes to get you up and down the steeper slopes. He also took us through caves formed naturally in the ice by running water and that was quite unnerving at times due to how small some of them were. You have to squeeze your way through some very tight spots and one cave had water gushing through it still, so we got soaked crawling through that one. We all had a great time and we were lucky to have a good group who was pretty fearless and willing to try anything the guide suggested. The glacier itself is a magnificent sight and some parts of it was a lovely deep blue colour. It was also weird walking up this massive piece of ice that was in a valley surrounded by rainforest. I took a lot of pictures up there.

As we had gone for the full day hike, we were able to use the outdoor Glacier Hot Pools for just $15. So myself, Amelia and another lady we had met on the hike, went along and relaxed there for the evening. There are 3 hot pools in total, the hottest being 40 degrees, and it was just what we needed after a days hiking. We ended up staying there for 3 hours in the end.

Today is my last day in Franz and I spent in on another hike with Amelia. We took in one of the walks that takes you along the mountain range and should end at the foot of the glacier. Unfortunately the route abruptly ended at a bridge as part of the track was flood damaged. We wanted to continue to the glacier, so we walked through some vegitation on the river bank and walked along some of the exposed riverbed. We had to climb back onto the road part way along as the river suddenly curved and left no exposed area. This wasn't that easy as the bank leading up to the road was really steep and slippery, so had to drag myself up onto the road on my stomach. Luckily no cars were coming along the road at the time, otherwise I would have looked a bit odd. It was an ace walk though and took us off the beaten track a little.

I've had a really good time here and a little sad to be leaving, but I head on to Wanaka tomorrow, which I have been told is very beautiful and has some great walks. I'm there for two nights and then head on to Queenstown, where I plan to do a bungy jump off the Kawarau Bridge and go on my first Lord of the Rings tour. Yeah!