Abel Tasman, Franz Josef & Fox Glacier

Alrighty, well we've had a couple of great days since our last blog. After we left the "river bath" campsite we headed north west to Abel Tasman National Park. This is a beautiful park most popular for their 3-4day hikes Up the mountains and along the coast.  We decided to just spend the afternoon there and walk along the beach. As soon as we stepped on the beach I noticed the little holes in the sand and right away knew, from my summers in PEI when I was a kid, that there were clams. And ohhh buddy were there clams. Jordan had never clam dug before so I was excited to show him how. Right away he loved it and it was a game to see who could catch the biggest one. It started off as such finding some clams here and there but then we hit the jackpot and collected more and more. I think we probably ended up with over a hundred and so that night we steamed up so delicious clams with some carrots and garlic butter and had ourselves a delicious little/big appetizer.  The black flies were going crazy over the garlic butter so we gobbled them up pretty quickly! 

 Buller River was where we spent the night at a free spot right by the river. After paying for accommodation so much we decided to start being really sneaky and try and find spots that were hidden from the road so we wouldn't get a ticket. This spot was great however this time we didn't end up swimming because a) there was a huge current b) there were tonnes of black flies and c) the water was frigid!! Did I mention there were blacks flies? These little buggers have quite the bite to them and then the bite itches like crazyyyyy for days after. We both got lit up so bad that we would wake up in the middle of the night and just itch for 10 minutes straight..not fun. We woke up the next morning and decided to hold off on breakfast and just get the hell outta there...we did NOT want anymore bites.

After we left Buller River we carried on to Franz Josef Glacier. We had heard all about this place and wanted to book a trip up to actually walk on the glacier and check it out. However because hunks of the ice were starting to fall off at the end of it, it was unsafe to walk on it, even with a guide. The only way to get on the glacier was to take a helicopter which would cost anywhere from $299 per person and up. We vetoed against that and decided just walk to the edge which was about 150 metres from the actual glacier. This thing was a monstrosity and was just beautiful! It was an hour and a half round trip to see the glacier and the numerous waterfalls that surrounded. It's the craziest setting because there is this huge ice block that just sits in the middle of a rainforest. Who knows why it doesn't just melt but it was a pretty cool experience. That night we went out to a cool restaurant called the Landing, had a delicious dinner and treated ourselves to dinner...date cake with caramel topping...reminded me of my Aunt Gina's...yum!! We stayed at a "free" (really we just didn't pay) campsite with the worst smelling port-a-potty I've ever smelt....gagggg!

Due to the fact that we couldn't walk on the Franz Josef Glacier we drove thirty minutes down the road to Fox Glacier which is actually 2km longer at 13km! This glacier we were able to take a guided tour onto the ice that was a half day trip. It was really cool to be able to walk on it and through crevasses. By the end we had enjoyed it so much that we wished we did the full day hike! There is also a tour that is a two night trip in which you get flown up by a heli, the guide makes all your meals, you stay in a cabin and you hike during the day. The price tag: $1400 buckaroonies. Maybe when we are retired and are (obviously) rolling in the dough we'll come back and do that trip! Hehe. We ended up "splurging" on a campsite so we could have a much needed shower! Today we are off further south to a town called Wanaka we our Isaac and Mia also lived for a while. 

On a side note, because we only have an iPad with us and there is no USB port, we are unable to add photos to our blog until we get the little add on we ordered....fingers crossed we get it before 2 weeks is up and we are off to Singapore! So apologies for the lack of pictures but we are trying to take pictures on our iPad and iPhone and upload those to Facebook! Ahhh technology!

That's all for now folks!

Ps. Thanks for commenting on our blogs!!  We are really loving reading all of them and get so excited to here a new one and all that's happening at home! Miss everyone!

Love Kikki and JoJo