Day Thirty Three Heading for Franz Josef Glacier

Heavy rain turned to continual drizzle which made it easier to sleep in 'the beast'. Not a long drive today as we'd gone further last night than we had originally planned.  Long flat roads with not many cars on them, just the odd single track bridge to keep Howard on his toes. 

Parked up the van in Franz Josef township. Very alpine feel about it and suddenly loads of people - not  unlike Aviemore. Howie excited that there were at least 4 pubs that had happy hours. 

Had a coffee and the biggest custard doughnut in the world to set us up for our walk to the glacier. We decided to walk from the town instead of driving up to the glacier car park. Had to cross the scary one way bridge which was worse on foot than driving. Very shaky! 

Lovely  lush rainforest and the sun was shining!  Woohoo! 

This walk was approx 4km and very quiet. The next part of the walk, after the car park, was mega busy. It was a short walk through rainforest and then all of a sudden the vegetation disappeared and the landscape turned into rocks, boulders and fast moving water. A landscape of grey! 

Lots of waterfalls which we tried to do something artistic with! 

The walk took about another hour to get to the glacier. You can't get right up to it because the glacier is unstable and has been melting fast since 2008. However, we got as far as we could. Worth the effort. Stunning seeing the jungle and ice so close together. 

On way home the rain started!  Message to self - buy a breathable waterproof - wet, hot and sweaty walk back. 21,600 steps today so back in walking mode. Fox Glacier tomorrow is the plan. Howie keen to do a helicopter ride over the glaciers, me less so. If the rain keeps up the helicopters don't fly! 

Me? Off to do a rain dance!  Howie? Off to look for Happy Hour!!