Day 13/14: Franz Josef
The drive to Franz Josef was really nice, we stopped somewhere called ‘pancake rock’ so we had a good walk and then went to the cafe where they serve awesome pancakes :).
It really is the wet west! It didn’t stop raining the whole 2 nights we were there, but it was cool rainforest rain with big fun droplets.
This was a quiet couple of days for us as the weather was too bad to do any of the glacial activities.
However, we did go to the Hot pools which were really fun especially in the rain; being in the (covered) hot water watching the rain pour down. Very relaxing!
The place we stayed was pretty fun and had a bar attached, that night we had a fancy dress party where our outfits were chosen and bought by someone else (like secret santa style).
Day 15: Wanaka
Wanaka is a stunning little place. It’s centred around a beautiful lake and has a great atmosphere. Again we chose to stay away from the group as we got a slightly better deal and a much better view at a hostel overlooking the lake, we would 100% recommend this hostel called BBC. We didn’t have the time but we would suggest hiring some bikes and having a good explore around the lake, there looked to be some nice trails.
We did have time for a hike up Mt iron though which was a pretty good climb; got a sweat on! It took about an hour and a half return: beautiful views.
Backpacking Around the World 