Franz Joseph Glacier

was at this point 4 years ago. It has retreated up the valley a bit since then meaning you have to walk further to see it. The weather was the same as the day before so we weren't woken by the sound of early morning helicopters taking walkers to the upper snow fields. To save time we drove to Franz Joseph immediately after breakfast and confirmed that the story was the same there - no flying today. Instead, we hiked to the glaciers terminal moraine and returned early just in case the helicopters were flying in the afternoon - they weren't. Instead we drove to the coast and the end of the road at Okarito. It felt a bit like the end of the world with a sharp sea breeze searing across the beach.15 -30 souls live there in a sort of Hippy friendly occasionally hi tech, rustic, shanty town of Bachs (NZ holiday homes). We luckily stumbled across a Kayak Guiding and Hire centre at the edge of the huts run by a welcoming young couple who provided great coffee and fantastic Carrot cake that passed the Easton Carrot Cake Test despite the NZ habit of including grated coconut. It was difficult to prise Ally from his comfy arm chair when the owners eventually closed their doors and put up the closed sign - I think he felt he had finally arrived in heaven and couldn't think of any reason why he might want to leave. He is chilling more as every day of his holiday unfolds.
Back to F.J.later for a Malaysian curry and another scan of the weather forecast.