NZ - Road trip of the South Island (Part 2)

The brewery tour of Monteith's brewery in Greymouth is very good if you ever go on it. So good, we all sampled a few too many of their beers that night....and had serious hangovers the next morning!

The next day we headed down to Franz Josef Glacier, via the town of Hokitika. Hokitika is cool if you're into Jade carving, or eating animal's testes during the annual wild food festival, otherwise it's just a nice place to stop for a coffee.

We got to Franz Josef and everyone except me went to bed for a post-hangover snooze. I had to go and take a look at the glacier. The next day, me and Rich did a guided tour up the glacier, it was not as cold as you imagine due to all the posh kit they gave us to wear, but really spectacular. We had a really beautiful day for it too, which was a bonus. That afternoon, we headed off to Fox Glacier, which is a bit more accessible that FJ, but not quite as pretty. Still, you don't see a glacier every day of the week, do you?

While we were down there, we had a stroll round Lake Matheson, with it's incredible views of the southern Alps, including Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. The local Maori call it Aoraki, which means 'cloud piercer'. That day, there wasn't a cloud to pierce in the sky!

After Fox, we headed to Wanaka. Me and Rich indulged our inner child and visited the toy and transport museum, full of classic toys like Lego and Star Wars figures that we spent ages saying 'ooh, I had that, and my mate had that' over. On top of that were loads of big boys toys, including a MiG Jet Fighter!

Whilst we were in Wanaka, we also walked to steep but dramatic Rob Roy Valley Glacier walk. It was damn cold at the top, and out third glacier in 3 days - not bad going! Me and Rich took a couple of beers up there to celebrate, alkies that we are.

After Wanaka was a brief stop at 'Puzzling World', with its huge maze and mind-bending displays. Not really my cup of tea, but the others seemed to enjoy it.

We're now in Queenstown, staying in a caravan park for a couple of weeks! The caravans are 'vintage' with their own 'rustic charm', but we've managed to make them pretty homely while we wait for the snow to come...

-Si