The Purple Penguin

Back again! Right we were on Franz Josef Glacier, weren’t we? And having a great time. Cloudy overcast day with a little bit of drizzle now and again. But having a great day. Trying to climb huge ice steps and go down steep icy bits. They didn’t tell us we’d have to lift our leg above our ears to get to the steps! But it was fun. Then on the way back off the glacier it started to rain. Really rain. Pouring it down rain. And our guide (Cliff) was singing, in the rain, having a great time. We were wet. And we’d hear from in front of us ‘Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind’. Hmmm. We did tell him not to give up the day job. We thought it couldn’t get worse, then Joe started to sing. ‘Hi Ho, hi ho, it’s down the glacier we go. With Cliff and an axe and an aching back. Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho etc.’ It was a rather wet and miserable group coming down that final stair way. But we were all grinning at the end. We’d climbed, we’d gone through little cracks in the ice, we’d clambered through a blue hole, we’d slid, we’d used our own axes, we’d seen Kea parrots, we’d had a great time.

This morning however, did not want to get up. Nope. My back is very unhappy and wants to have a word with someone about going up and down glaciers. I did suggest to Joe that we could do a half day walk on Fox Glacier and he just gave me a look. So we drove to Wanaka instead. Stopping to look at waterfalls in the rain because yep, the rain has continued. Pouring it down. It is a bit drier in Wanaka though and tomorrow we’ll probably go have a look at Queenstown. Then off to Fiordland! Horray!

Oh and photos. Am trying to upload though may not get the penguin sign up. And Steve, the cute penguin photos aren’t on the digital camera. They are on film. So you’ll just have to wait until Joe is back in the office!