Glaciers (Franz Joseph, NZ)

Since my last entry I have been through Queenstown (the Gatlinburg, Tennessee of New Zealand's adventure sports industry), Wanaka (a cute lake town with a funny name), and Fox Glacier (an itty bitty town at the foot of an enormous glacier). I've been hiking and exploring each of these places as throughly as one can without private transport. They're all beautiful - clear water, snowcapped mountains, endless greenery - everything you'd expect.

The bus ride to Fox yesterday was hilarious. By bus you should know that with the exception of major routes, most buses are really some variation of an oversized shuttle van. So yesterday there were about 10 of us jammed in a van with a sweet 80 year old Kiwi driver who insisted on stopping at a bare minimum of every 30 minutes. A 4 hour drive contained 6 stops of 10-30 minutes. The weather was gorgeous and the views along the West Coast spectacular so nobody complained, but it got completely ridiculous and served as a bit of a bonding experience for the last few rows of backpackers being thrown into each other at every hairpin turn during the time spent actually driving. The British guy next to me had plenty of time to prepare me for SE Asia by telling me all about having his trekking guide in Chiang Mai, Thailand exectuted by drug lords a day into their 3 day trip. Don't they say the destination is in the journey?
Now I'm in Franz Joseph which is another glacier town. It's quite rainy and getting late so though I just arrived and am eager to explore, I will wait and walk up to the base of the ice tomorrow.