After carefully persuading Betsy to get up the hills we reached the Fox Glacier just in time for our HeliHike. This certainly puts a new light on those geography lessons. We got a helicopter ride a part of the way up the glacier.

Me on the 'chopter.

It was really cool looking out on to the glacier from the helicopter but I didn't quite realise how big it was until I saw the little dots (guides and other hikers) waiting for us below.

Lots and lots of ice.

We were kitted out in boots and crampons for our adventure. Mark of course had to show off by wearing shorts. It wasn't actually that cold on the ice until the clouds starting coming over.

Interpid Explorers.

We came upon amazing features in the ice including plenty of ice caves with amazing blue colours and large crevasses. In some places we could hear the water gushing somewhere down below. A good reminder to stay well away from the edge of the crevasses.

Cathy in an ice cave.

Our first destination was the Abel Tasman National Park on the top of the South Island. We were pretty tired after the ferry during the middle of the night and driving all day but Mark did what he does best - stoked up the barbie and cooked us a nice steak for dinner.

Man at work

We took the lazy option of seeing the Abel Tasman area on a sail boat (the others being a 3 day tramp or sea kayaking - far too much work). It was an absolutely gorgeous day but we still got some wind for sailing - perfect. The area has some of the most amazing golden sandy beaches.

Wellington put on a parade for Paddy's day. It was a pretty decent parade and would probably beat the parade's in a lot of Irish towns. It was a bit odd, though.

It was on at night, the roads were blocked off and crowds started gathering about 5 minutes before it started. Then all the floats and bands came tearing down down the street with a cop car on their tail. It was over in about ten minutes. They were going so fast it was even hard to get a decent photo :-)

Good to see some mad eejits in attendance.

Guinness was definetly a major sponsor. But what doesn't Guinness sponsor these days ?

Strangely, I think I've drunk more Guiness over here than I ever did back home ...

Mmmm. Guinness. Mmmm. Girls.

Purely by coincidence we happened to meet up with Laca (a workmate), his wife Katya and their gorgeous 1 year old daughter, Emeshe. Great to see them and I still can't get over how happy a baby little Emeshe is.

Emeshe and Laca

That same night, we set off on our big two week 'venture driving around the south island.

Waiting for the ferry

'Twas a bit weird getting the ferry in the middle of the night. Really reminded of getting the ferry to France every summer when I was a wee lad.

Night Ferry

Work is real stressing me out. I just can't work in these terrible conditions :-)

Office life is tough.

We haven't been travelling recently. Heading off down the south island for two weeks soon.

It was Faye's birthday recently and she wanted to go to the zoo ... so off to the Zoo we went.

Happy family at the Zoo.

Wellington's Zoo is definetly nothing special. Most of the enclosures are fairly old and small. Someone got mauled by the tigers a few days after we were there.

Cheeky Meerkat