Today we have travelled from Wanaka to Fox Glacier. The journey takes around 4 hours and the weather is shocking. It’s raining very heavily, the fog and mist is rolling in across the mountains and it’s still freezing cold. Simon and Ali took ages scraping the car before we left whilst Maisie and I sat shivering inside. We drive slowly as the roads are quite narrow and we have to go through a mountain pass to get there.

Once we get closer to the West Coast the landscape changes massively, from mountainous, sparse brown land to lush, tropical looking vegetation, almost like the jungle in Malaysia. We drive all along the coast and pass red sandy beaches, loads of boulder fields and creeks with nice names like Dismal Creek and Grave Creek. Seems quite appropriate for today.

We’re all feeling a bit achy today from our skiing or boarding and I’ve now got some pain in my left knee that’s causing me to limp a bit. Good job we’re not going walking on the glacier until tomorrow. We arrive at the backpackers we’ve booked and decide we will try a motel instead. For 120 dollars we get a lovely lodge style place with loads of space and two rooms.

Spent the afternoon watching the Discovery channel, after the past three days it’s good to crash out in front of the telly with cheese and biscuits and a few beers. This is the life.