We wanted the sun and we got snow!!!

We arrived in Franz Josef late afternoon, and having called at the Information Centre and booked our accommodation, we headed to check out the possibility of booking a helicopter flight over the glaciers for the next day. We weren't very hopeful as the weather was once again cloudy and wet.

To our amazement the guy said "you are on in 5 minutes - the weather above the clouds is wonderful and sunny". So that was it, we grabbed a jacket and we were off with another couple from Holland.

To say it was amazing was yet another understatement. Neither of us had been in a helicopter before so we were not sure what to expect and it was with some trepidation that we leapt on board. The ride itself was really smooth, although the pilot did treat us to a couple of dive bombs just to churn our stomachs a bit. We managed to thread our way up the valley through gaps in the cloud and once we were above this we swooped up and over to the top of the Franz Josef glacier, with our stomachs left somewhere below!!!

Having flown round and given us an explanation of the glacier, we then flew up over several other peaks and down onto Fox glacier where we landed. We were able to get out and play in the snow - being careful not to fall down any large crevasses!!!

We then flew back down along the route of the glacier, banking backwards and forwards along the hillside where there was a small window in the cloud - another amazing experience!!

We were so lucky to be able to do this (surprise surprise I can hear you say) as the next day the clouds had thickened up so much and the torrential rain meant there were no flights.

With no views of the glaciers the next morning and persistent rain we headed off to our next destination of Haast, a journey of 145km. The end of this day signals our half way point on our journey - it's all downhill from here!!!

We have been struggling to decide which of our many photos to put on our blog as we were originally only allocated 25mb of space each month. However, because of the interest of all of you we have now been upgraded to 100mb per month, which means we should be able to post more photos for you to enjoy. (Less for you to have to sit through when we get home!!!!). So thank you all for your continued interest. Please keep the comments coming as we look forward to logging on to see what you are all saying!!!