Day 11 - Lake Mahinapua to Franz Josef

A cooked breakfast was just what we needed to start the day after a night shivering away in the outside cabins. My glutus maximus is ridiculously tender after horse riding yesterday. It was the canter across the paddock that did it - it hurts to sit down! 

On our way out of town we passed through another old goldrush town, Ross, where the largest piece of gold ever to be extracted from NZ was found. Weighing in at a whopping 2.2kg! No-one is entirely sure where the golden nugget went, but rumour has it that it fell into the hands of the British royal family - interesting.

Then we rode through Hari Hari, which is famous for the first trans-Tasman flight in the 1930s. A pilot decided to fly from Sydney to Auckland but missed and crash landed in a swamp in Hari Hari. Idiot. 

We then passed into the more picturesque valleys heading towards Franz Josef. Including the winding road up Mount Hercules. 

And Lake Mapourika which is so still it's like a mirror.

We passed through whataroa where the lagoon is home to the White heron, although we didn't get a chance to see one. 

On to Franz Josef glacier which was discovered by a German explorer in 1865 who named it after the Austrian Emperor of the era. The 12km long Glacier shifts approx 6m a day, it would take a fresh snowflake 50yrs to reach the bottom. 

Around 1900, the goldrush was over and tourists started coming to the area instead. The Graham brothers began an enterprise guiding tourists onto the glacier and now tourists flood in, with the towns population rising from just 400 permanent resident, to house over 10,000 visitors in the summer 

Months! 

The Maori legend behind the glacier I think is rather beatiful. The Maori name is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere meaning,

'The tears of the Avalanche girl'. The story goes that a young maiden (Hinehukatere) loved climbing and convinced her lover Tawe to climb the mountain with her. He lost his footing during an avalanche and died leaving Hinehukatere devastated. The gods saw her tears as froze them as a memorial to her grief.

I'll have more about the glacier tomorrow as we're due to climb it! But weather is a crucial factor as to whether or not it's possible to do so fingers crossed! We treated ourself to a nice meal before napping the evening away, writing a few postcards and allowing ourselves to rest for the first time properly in two weeks of mayhem! 

Headed to the bar go find out who won yesterday's best costume - the tampon won. And watched the frozen t-short competition before heading to bed.