Next we headed to Franz Josef Glacier. We headed out to the pub in the hostel that night and entered a rock paper scissors contest to win a Nevis Arc swing but we both got knocked out in the first round. We had heard that your could kayak near the glacier and touch little icebergs. When we asked about it we found out it was on the Mount Cook side and not the Franz Josef side but we are stopping by Mount Cook on the way back up the island so we still plan to do that. So instead we decided to go for a walk up to see the glacier. We had the whole day to burn so when we got up to the car park near the glacier Brian decided we should go for the five hour and twenty minute walk to see the glacier from above. We had been speaking to a couple who had headed up the path directly to the front of the glacier and they said the barrier is actually quite far away from glacier and you can't get closer without being on a guided walking or climbing tour. They sounded a bit disappointed. We headed off and gradually realised walk was a bit misleading. At a few short points we had to climb up almost vertical bits of cliff and grab on to tree roots to get up. We also had to walk on really smooth rock face from streams that was at quite a steep angle. We eventually got to the top and had a great view of the front of the glacier from a hill quite close to it. It doesn't really picture well as the glacier front kinda blends in with the sky and stuff. Then it started to rain and all the way back was very slippy. We eventually got back and actually managed the walk in about 5 and a half hours. We were absolutely soaking when we got back. Upon getting back to the hostel we decided to head to the glacier hot pools and relax for two hours before grabbing food in the restaurant by the hostel.
Following day we headed off early as we had a five hour drive followed by a two hour drive. We were also driving with an Irish guy called Liam who was in the hostel room at the last place with us. He was a really nice guy from Mayo and he was planning on getting a bus down to Queenstown. Even with our stop in Wanaka along the way we would still be arriving in Queenstown quicker than the bus. Over the last two nights we had been talking to him in the pub and found out we were all going the same way. The distance wasn't too bad on the trip but there were some seriously windy roads up and down mountains along the way. The views were absolutely amazing. We stopped in Wanaka about lunch time. We dropped Liam off in the town as he didn't really have much interest in giant puzzles and we went to the puzzling world there. There was a 1.5 kilometer maze with stairs in it. The maze itself wasn't really that hard in the end. We had it done in a lot less time then it said it took but I imagine that may have been for kids. We weren't the only adults doing it though as there were a few other couples we met along the way. You didn't have to find your way out, you just had to find your way to the four towers and then back to the start. After that came four illusion rooms which were interesting. The main one was pretty cool. It was a room entirely at about a 45 degree angle. It had various bits that completely freaked out your brain. Water that looked like it was running uphill and a big eye illusion wall. Then we played a few puzzles in the cafe while getting lunch. Things like building triangles out of various pieces of wood and that wiggle line making games. We played 3D connect 4 for a while. Me and Eoin had a 3D connect 4 when we were kids but it had 4 layers where you could place tokens. This one was 16 metal prongs and you put beads on them. We played for quite a while, both of us winning as much as losing. We would have kept playing only we told Liam we would collect him at 3. As I was navigator I chose the shortest route to Queenstown. It was especially up and down in the end but we did save a bit of time and Brian definitely wasn't bored driving. We did worry a bit about running out a petrol as towns are laid out fairly spread out along the way and not all of them had petrol stations.
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