October 16 Friday We got up just after 7, had breakfast, then went into town so Julie could make a decision on the bungy jump. After she chose the option she wanted and was underway, I headed back to the hostel, with a brief stop to exchange a DVD. I had a relaxing morning, checked out of Deco Backpackers at 10, but then stayed and used the internet until almost noon, while Julie bungy jumped. I checked at the jump center at our meeting time, but they said since it had been a small group in the morning they actually had gotten back an hour early, so I returned to the car, which was still in the same place from the previous day. I knew that Julie had wanted to see the Botanical Garden and assumed that she must have gone there when they came back early. This turned out to be the case. So by early afternoon we had had some lunch and began driving towards the glaciers. We made a few stops, including the Gates of Haast and ended up finding a sideroad only 5 kms from Fox Glacier to stay at for the night. A couple lads from London with a Jucy van joined us for the strength in numbers principle of free camping and we settled in for the night.

October 17 Sabbath In the morning we went to the Fox Glacier and walked the main track to what is called the glacier terminal end, basically where the glacier is currently stopped. It is still almost a quarter mile from the glacier, but a tremendous view. We also took a walk on the other side of the valley that took us up a ridge where we had views looking down to the glacier. We saw morning tours heading to the glacier itself. In the afternoon we got a cold rain, but the forecast was for great weather on Sunday.

In the evening we drove the 26 kms to Franz Joseph township and camped for the night at a new business development park, that currently was just a roughly graded street layout in a forested section just outside the town ship. We planned to see this glacier in the morning.

October 18 Sunday Franz Joseph was nearly as impressive as Fox, but I liked Fox better. The groups going out to the Franz Joseph glacier were much bigger and they walked right up the terminal end, which just did not have the right feel to it when we saw it. There was much more information on Fox too, with a 550 meter cliff that used to be almost completely covered by the glacial ice and is now exposed. The glacial valleys get up to 7 meters of rain at the bottoms and nearly 15 meters of rain at the summits, if you can imagine. Both glaciers are “contracting” and there are markers showing where they were in 1930 and 1750 and they have shrunk a shocking amount. Again, we walked to the terminal end and also another trail that gave us some elevated views. The sky was steadily getting cloudier and when we drove down to Lake Matheson, which is famous for its reflective surface with the mountains in the background, the view was mostly obliterated and a non event. Eventually we left and continued up the coast which included an amazing visit to the Pancake Rocks region. I don't know how to describe the formations in this area, and got many good pictures, hopefully, I can post a few that do it justice. We continued on and made it past the town of Merchison, where we found a place to stay for the night

October 19 Monday Abel Tasman National Park was not much further, once we got up in the morning. But the information center had some bad news for us: all kayaking trips (which is the primary way of seeing most of the coastal formation in the park) have to be booked at least 24 hours in advance, so no kayaking for us. We got what information we could and headed for Cape Farewell to make the most of the day. The weather was not cooperating very well again. We could see very little from Cape Farewell, but did see quite a few other interesting things, enough to keep us occupied until we found a camp site next to a farm near Motueka. We had stopped in town and eaten at a great kebab place with the bland name of Coffee and Kebabs. Despite the name the food was phenomenal. The lady working there made giant falafels for us and was extremely friendly. The evening did turn out to be very special because the sunset combined with the low tide and the clouds to create a photographic wonderland of reflections. I took a lot of pictures, but should have taken even more.

October 20 Tuesday We got up and out of our campsite at 7:45. First stop back into Motueka for the bathrooms, breakfast and brushing teeth. Then we thought we could take our time driving to Picton, which really was not that far away. Unfortunately, there turned out to not be very much to see along the way. The town of Nelson was one of the places we did stop. It is the home of the geographic center of New Zealand, which happens coincidentally to rest at the top of a mountain overlooking the city. Coincidentally. It also decided to coincidentally begin raining when we got halfway up that mountain, so we took a few rushed pictures at the summit and hurried back down. The rain stopped before we made it back to the car. Nelson also had a library where we could get free internet and so while we did some email catchup, Julie also recharged her phone and camera. We got into Picton, found our hostel and a grocery store, and prepared for one more evening on the south island. Julie was excited that we would be in Wellington the next day and she would get to see her boyfriend again.