what a spirit of national pride

9 days in and our first day of rain!! But it did try and make up for the all the sun we have had so far. Started the day from the West coast of the South Island at Franz Jozef and headed down for a bit before turning inland to Wanaka. This place (west coast of South Island) gets between 8 to 9 metres of rain a year! Rain has stopped now and looks to be clearing so should be all set for the snowboarding tomorrow on fresh powder (rain down here means snow up there !!!)

Every little town we go through is known for something in NZ. They each have their little bit too be proud of. Either they have the longest single-lane bridge, or the second-biggest lake on the south island, or the most photographed tree etc... (so can get rather obscure, but they idea is great).

Yesterday I flew over the Franz Jozef glacier by helicopter. Landed on it and walked around between the huge blocks of ice - and even crawled through a 5m long tunnel. Amazing experience and the only way to truly understand (and hear) the tremendous forces at play here. If you are going to visit the glaciers then I would recommend Franz Josez over Fox Glacier. Not only is Franz Jozef more spectacular, but it is also easier to get close to and experience by car and foot. The town and accomodation at Franz Jozef is also far better (nothing happens at Fox).