So far the South Island has been full of contrasts. Arriving Saturday we saw the white tips of mountain ranges as we made the ferry crossing to Picton. The ferry was quite impressive with 10 decks including the sun or should we say the wind deck. There were 2 cinemas, a food court, coffee lounge and of course a bar. Joy made friends with some strange creatures in the bar.
From Picton we travelled through the Marlborough 
wine region and on to Nelson a seaside town on the North Coast. On our way to the supermarket we came across a couple of shivering locals wet to the knees who offered us a bag of green lipped mussels in exchange for a couple of dollars (so they could buy something to warm themselves up with). It seemed a fair trade and we had green lipped mussels with our Marlborough Sound wine for dinner. (Not as good as Moullons from Belgium but a good feed.)Sunday we travelled on to Franz Josef where we will be for the next 2 nights. The scenery was quite bizarre, on our right waves crashing into the shoreline and on our left it was the snow caps of the Southern Alps. The road kill was also changed. Joy is sure she saw a dead hedgehog (Joy claims it had spikes but a truck blew it over and all Adrian saw was blood and guts).
Today’s weather forecast was morning Northerly winds and rain followed by afternoon showers and Southerlies. We went up to the glacier this morning and for a pleasant walk in the rain. We couldn’t get too close to the glacier as apparently it is not safe. Tomorrow we have booked on a helicopter with a glacier landing.
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