Saturday 8th

Yet another glorious day. We set off this morning for a walk to the Franz Joseph Glacier. It was lovely to be off the bus for a while walking. Here's a different view to flying over in the helicopter. 

The glacier was in one direction and the waterfall the other. Beautiful scenery all around. 

After our walk we climbed aboard our bus again for a lovely scenic drive to Hokatito for lunch.

The beach at Hokatito. It looks beautiful but there was a cold wind blowing in off the Tasman Sea.

Then on to pick up our train at Arthur's Pass. This is the new viaduct built because the land has reclaimed the old road. 

This is a kea, which is a native wild parrot. Apparently there are only 5000 of them but they are a pain. We sat indoors to eat our ice cream so as not to be attacked. Looking at the beak you can see that they can do serious damage. Apparently they are quite happy tearing bits off your car or eating the windscreen wipers. Thank goodness there are none on north island as I'm not sure our car insurance covers kea damage. 

Our train arriving out of the mountain. The section we travelled had 15 tunnels. 

Some of the spectacular views from the train. Unfortunately the photos really don't convey the scale and how spectacular the scenery was. It's a journey we are glad we've done. 

Now we are back on the east coast heading for Christchurch for an overnight stop and the weather has changed completely. The blue skies and lovely warmth has given way to depressing grey skies. Hopefully it'll brighten up for tomorrow. All we have to do tonight is have some food and relax.