Franz josef

Today was probably the worst hangover of the entire holiday so far, at the poo-pub party we'd been drinking lager, loads of these baileys shots, and finished all of that off wth some red wine on the beach. We rolled into Franz Josef after a painful bus stint down the west coast, and dropped off at the Rainforest Retreat. This was a really cool hostel, with smaller dorms (4 per room), a spa which can fit 18 people in, and generally a really relaxed atmosphere.

On arriving, we were told there was going to be a karaoke night the same day. Normally this would be great news, unfortunately I was in no mood for any drinking. The only prospect more terrifying than another pissup after the poo-pub party was a night of sober karaoke !

Having said that, this is supposed to be an action adventure holiday, and there was to be no rest for the wicked. I'd booked to do another skydive (the last one was at Taupo), as I thought the amazing scenery would be well worth it. You actually get a scenic flight and skydive all in one (as you fly over the glaciers on the way up), and that was good enough for me to splash some more cash out ;-).

Anyway, the weather was pretty poor when we arrived, but we were picked up in a minibus and shuttled off to near the Fox Glacier for our skydive. The minibus was really uncomfortably stuffy, but we got there eventually. We were told that on this dive, we'd be allowed to bring our own cameras which we could use after the freefall, and only two of us would be going up at one time (compared to about 10 in Taupo).

There was a really small plane which took us up there compared to Taupo, and even worse, it had to be jump started from the bloke's car, as the alternator was broken ! I hung around during the afternoon waiting for other people to jump so I could get some food and water in (the hangover was pretty bad by now).

When it came to my turn to jump, a gruff bloke showed me all the stuff I needed to do, and before I knew it, we were off up in the plane ! The photos I took up there were amazing, the sun was just setting at this stage, and casting shadows on the peaks of Mt. Cook and Mt. Tasman. I've added a pic I took up there, Mt. Cook is the sharp pointy one (Aoraki in Maori which means 'cloud-piercer', what a cool name for a mountain !), and Mt Tasman is the flattened off one.

As we were falling, I did a bit of breast-stroke for old time's sake, and then before I knew it, the parachute was deployed. I could see the glacier, out to sea (it is right on the coast), and all around. The guy I was jumping with let me grab the parachute handles, so I could fly around myself. It was pretty easy, pull left hand to wheel to the left, right hand to go right, and both to slow down and stop.

After that I headed back to the hostel, exhilarated and knackered, and had a meal at the hostel. I really wasn't up for any karaoke, and hit the sack fairly early as I knew i would be doing some hiking on the glacier the next day.

Lucy and I had booked in to do the heli-hike before we went off to the sky dive. This is basically a helicopter flight up to the top of the mountain (so you see all the sights on the way up), and you get a full 2 hours walking around on top of the glacier at the top where the ice is clean and blue. The alternative was an 8 hr hike, through all the dirty ice at the bottom, and not spending as much time in the ice formations at the top. The only thing was the heli-hike relied on good weather, and it was pissing it down when we arrived !

Luckily the weather was really nice (they didn't let you wear jeans, so I had shorts on). We got dropped off by helicopter (my first helicopter flight !), and then we walked for about 2 hours, finding cool ice formations, and squeezing through gaps. It was amazing how blue the ice was, there were also veins of clearer ice where it had been compressed over time. One of the coolest things was at the end, when one of the guides called Cliff had found an underground ice-cave with no exit, which only just had a big enough opening for someone to squeeze down.

They asked who wanted to go down, and I volunteered straight away ! The hole was really tight, and I only just slid down. Once I was under there, I took a couple of photos, as we were tight for time, and then clambered out with the help of Barton and Cliff. It was really amazing down there.

After all that exertion, I went for a cheeky spa in the hostel which was very relaxing. I had a chilled out day from then on, as I had to get my photos burnt off to CD, and catch up on goings-on on the internet.