2 week holiday: To Franz Josef Glacier

Today started with a bang and a boom and a walk that was pointless. Our backpackers had scheduled a lovely walking tour of Blackball, and when I say lovely Blackball, I mean a walking tour without the lovely but lots of history. Our guide was interesting and a little long winded. But really there was a lot of history and it was at least interesting to learn about New Zealand mining in the 1800s.

After hopping on the bus we were off for Franz Josef Glacier! Along the way we made a few fun stops. Our first stop was at Hokitika. This little quirky town is home of the largest jade factory in New Zealand. Cassie and I purchased some jade jewelry to take home! It's amazing that jade earrings here, in the homeland of jade, only cost $20! Gorgeous!!!

Our next stop was Lake Mahinapua. This little lake is usually a gorgeous stop, but of course these girls forget they are traveling with the "Cheslyn Curse" so instead of gorgeous mountains and blue skies, we got grey clouds covering the views and buckets of rain. It was still fun to run in the rain and act a fool!

Then we were off to Franz Josef! We arrived without any issue and the rain continued to fall! We went to dinner and had drinks at the local bar. We woke up this morning to more rain and no chance of the glacier helicopter hike that we planned to do because of the awful weather! Looks like today we might be making our own fun! Wish us luck!