Wanaka

,I thought I'd seen enough stunning mountains to last me a lifetime, but Wanaka had more. We stayed three nights at a fantastic hotel just outside Wanaka itself, and had 1st floor rooms with balconies looking out onto the hoteel gardens and beyond to a fantastic mountain range which changed colour as the sun went down. Friday was our first day with absolutely nothing scheduled so after getting some laundry done, we lazed by the hotel pool all day and unwound. on Saturday morning we had a trip on a jet boat on the lake, out to an island where our guide took us on a walk through all the native New Zealand vegetation up to a lake at the top. We met flightless birds (not Kiwis but something called a Weka) and heard bellbirds singing, and it was so different from the Fiords that it was a wonderful day. We even had time to do a bit of shopping before spending another hour or two by the pool, as the weather was still spectacularly warm and  sunny.
Yesterday the weather changed and we drove to the west coast in rain and cloud, reaching Franz Josef late afternoon. We were supposed to be going on a helicopter flight this morning to the glacier, but there were no flights today because of the low cloud. We're going to try again in the morning before we leave.
We can't grumble about the weather as it has been fantastic so far (sorry about your snow)
Oh, and my niece Suzy and Douglas have got engaged while they were in the Maldives, so we've been on the bubbly tonight!