We departed early afternoon and headed into the heart of the West coast where it is said time almost stands still.
 
Along the way we stopped at Greymouth which, with a current population of about 14,000, is much smaller than it would have been during the gold rush but it's still the largest service centre on the West Coast and at Hokitika, another town which owes its existence to the gold rushes of the 1860s but is now well known for its greenstone (or pounamu as the Maori know it) .
 
The Maori people call the West Coast 'Poutini' as legend has it this is also the name of a taniwha (monster) which swims up and down the West Coast of the South Island protecting both the people and the spiritual essence of greenstone. Pounamu has always been held in high regard by New Zealand Maori as it has high spiritual significance and is worn in remembrance of passed ancestors as it is often regarded as holding the power of the previous owners.
 
Our last stop before reaching Franz Josef was at the Bushman Centre in Pukekura. Their main aim is to teach visitors about local bush life and how it has evolved over the years. They have a small museum which we had a wander round and they showed us a short DVD on deer farming on the West Coast. Originally people would simply drive and walk around looking for deer then shoot them but as the numbers got low and people started farms they had to find a way to catch them alive. There were several different techniques used but the most hilarious one involved the hunters throwing themselves out of a helicopter onto the deers' backs to catch them, they then tied them up and flew them back to the farm hanging from underneath the helicopter! They also keep deer at the centre which we were able to feed . The whole experience can only be described as bizarre!
 
We finally arrived into Franz Josef around 6pm: I was very pleased to win myself a pint of beer during check in for answering one of the receptionist's questions correctly! It was pretty dark by the time we had settled in and most places were closed so we weren't really able to explore the town that evening. Instead, some of the group set about cooking dinner while the rest jumped in the hot tub! Matt and about 5 others had gone for the hot tub and it was lovely and hot but it turned into a rather traumatic experience as they then had to run back to the rooms soaking wet and it was freezing cold outside, probably the coldest we'd experienced so far. This was our first time of the whole bus cooking together, all 19 of us worked together and even Seagull came for his birthday dinner with us despite still feeling poorly. We really had turned into a "family". After dinner, most of us headed over to the bar as it was happy hour and we had been promised bingo! The bar was lovely as it was like a ski lodge, with wooden beams and big open fires and the drinks were delicious, I had a couple of cocktails served in jam jars?!, sadly though the bingo was pretty lame! We all really wanted to get involved and have fun but the bingo caller was very slow going and seemed more interested in chatting up the ladies than getting on with the game so it was a very long game! Two of the girls in our group did win bar crawls in Queenstown though so it wasn't all bad!
 
The next morning we had to be up early, we made a nervous phone call to the glacier guides to confirm whether the weather had improved enough for our climb to go ahead (they had all been cancelled the few days before due to bad weather as the helicopter pilots need 100% visibility!), and luckily, even though the day before they had predicted that the tours probably wouldn't be going, it had cleared up enough and we all excitedly set about getting ready for our glacier helihike! 
 
As we walked down to the meeting point, we were given our first real opportunity to see where we were staying . The township of Franz Josef is a cool little place set in the rainforest which is actually much smaller then we anticipated, comprising of only 2 roads! The main attraction here is the glacier which, according to Maori legend, is actually the frozen tears of a maiden named Hinehukatere. They were made from her crying for the one she loved (a man named Tane) after she made him climb the mountains with her and he slipped and fell to his death. Hinehukatere was heart broken and with her crying at such a high altitude, her tears turned to ice and formed the glacier. The name Franz Josef was given to the glacier by the geologist Julius van Haast to honour the emperor of his native Austria. The glacier itself is 12km long and is one if the fastest moving glaciers in the world with growth of as much as 1.5m a day. With the sky being much clearer we actually got to see the beautiful backdrop of snow capped mountains the town has, we couldn't see the glacier but the mountains were impressive enough.
 
15 of us had booked on to do the Ice Explorer helihike which involves a helicopter ride up the glacier, a 3 hour hike around the glacier following a guide then another helicopter ride to bring you back down from the glacier! We were split into 2 groups and had to fill out a health and fitness form to make sure we would be okay with the activity then we met our guide, Cliff, who took us through to the clothes and boot room to get kitted out with all the protective and warm weather gear we needed as it was 4 degrees in the town but about -1 on the glacier . By the time we came out, we were all wrapped up in thermal under layers, waterproof trousers and jacket, socks, boots, hats, gloves and a bag of crampons! We really looked the part! Cliff then walked us down to the helicopter ride briefing area where we were met by one of the pilots and he talked us through all the safety information we needed to know before getting close to the helicopters. From there we were led down to the helipad where we had quite a wait before we could get on one as there were lots of 'scenic tour' groups booked in before us! Most of us were very excited by the helicopters as we'd never been in one before so it was amazing to see them landing and taking off right in front of us, Matt is lucky enough to go in them quite regularly for his offshore work but he hadn't been in any as small or agile as these ones. 
 
Eventually, it was our turn to get on the helicopter. Our group of 10 was split into 2 groups of 5 as we couldn't all fit in one helicopter! We were in the second group and I was really excited when the ground control officer told me to climb into the front seat next to the pilot! Ella climbed in next to me with Matt, Roman and Nienke in the back! The views were incredible as we flew higher and higher up into the glacier . Never having been in a helicopter before, it was an amazing experience albeit pretty surreal as it's so different to an aeroplane.  
 
Once we landed on the glacier, we were helped out of the helicopter and had to walk along a pathway to meet the rest of our group where we had the fun task of trying to put our crampons on without sliding over!! When we were all ready, we set off on our hike. Walking in crampons took a little bit of getting used to and it was hard to trust that they would stop you from slipping over but after a while it became a bit more natural!
 
It's very difficult to explain how much fun the hike was because in a way we just walked about lots of ice for 3 hours but it wasn't quite as simple as that. Like us, you may not realise that glaciers aren't flat, so it wasn't like walking up a hill. With the temperature change and movement of the ice, the glacier constantly cracks and breaks open, so we spent most of the time walking down inside huge cracks in the ice. The ice itself varies from over 30 metres thick at the top and down to under 10 metres at the bottom, as we were quite far up, the cracks themselves were sometimes over 10 or 15 metres deep . Even as we were walking, we suddenly heard a sound almost like thunder, this was actually the ice cracking and grinding underneath as and is why you must have a guide as it's actually a very dangerous place to be with the ice changing nearly all the time. Cliff zig zagged us up the glacier carving us pathways with his pick axe as he went, he took us on a new route he created to show us a tiny little ice tunnel we all had to squeeze through. It was so much fun! We were surprised because the ice isn't clear like ice from freezers or normal snow, it's a beautiful blue colour, this is is caused by the sheer weight of it compressing it together and a lack of oxygen getting to it. We had a few photo stops in caves with the ice around us showing how blue it was. 

There was one photo stop none of us will ever forget: Cliff took us to a lovely spot looking back down the glacier and on to the mountains and Matt, Kevin, Roman and Ian all decided to get naked for a picture in the snow! This was hilarious as there was 6 of us girls and Cliff watching, luckily for us they only exposed their bums to us but any passing birds or helicopters would of got an interesting view!! This, of course, gave us the chance to snowball them whilst they were naked!! It would have been rude not to! They they laid on large amounts of peer pressure for us girls to have a similar picture! After initially saying no, we all agreed we would but only our top halves and we'd keep covered up . They agreed to that, so all 6 of us then posed topless, just as another group came round the corner and caught us, it was very funny, and of course the boys snowballed us back! Once he'd stopped laughing, Cliff led us back down towards the helicopter, he was a good guide to have as he didn't stick to the normal path back down. Instead, he decided to take one of his shortcuts, which is actually the more scenic, longer route! This was much more fun for us as it was a lot steeper to climb down and therefore more exciting. To top things off, it started snowing for us so our last half an hour was spent trekking in the snow, it was lovely and according to Cliff we were very lucky people to get that as it doesn't actually snow all that often on the glacier. The helicopter ride back was even more exciting than the first one us as the pilot flew us right up alongside the mountain and over the peak then suddenly dipped towards the ground. It was like being in a roller coaster but lots more exciting. The whole experience was just incredible and easily one of the best things we've done since being away .
 
On the way back to the hostel, we called into a couple of souvenir shops and had a little look around town. We even bumped into Seagull in a bar so stopped to have a quick chat with him! He must of been on the road to recovery as he was sat having a pint!
 
To reward ourselves after a hard day's work we all decided to head down to the Glacier Hot Pools.They are included in the cost of the hike and were the perfect way to warm up and relax! There were 3 different pools, each kept at a different temperature: 36, 38 and 40 degrees. Matt braved the 40 degree pool but that was a little too hot for me and I was much happier switching between the 36 & 38 degree pools! They were so nice we stayed there for a couple of hours allowing the warmth of the water to soothe our muscles before heading back to the hostel to cook dinner. I was pretty worn out and we had another early start in the morning, so I decided to headed to bed after dinner whereas Matt decided to pop to the bar for a couple of drinks as there was killer pool on, before turning in for the night! He didn't drink very much though as he had to be up early as well as he was sky diving in the morning!