An early start was called for this morning, so I managed that, and was organised enough to get to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare.
When I got to the bus stop there were two coaches waiting, both going to Dunedin or other locations, and one driver was looking slightly concerned as he was missing 7 passengers and it was almost time to depart.
It turned out that the passengers had been waiting at the bus stop but hadn't realised it was their coach to board. With that issue solved, they drove away and then my coach appeared, this one with the company 'Newmans'.
As I was nice and early, I managed to get a good seat, half way between the wheels, and on the right hand side to afford good views of the mountains that we were to drive through on this journey up to Franz Josef.
2 minutes before departure time, a couple arrived, and there were no double seats left - they asked me to give up my seat and join someone on the left, but I declined. My reasoning (which I didn't say to them) was that if they wanted to sit together they should have arrived earlier! As it happened, another couple arrived after them, and were happy to have one sit beside me and one sit on the seat across the aisle
I tried to connect to the Wi-Fi but couldn't find any Wi-Fi name that matches with Newmans - just two hotspots for 'AwesomeNZ' - which I found interesting, given that the AwesomeNZ coach from Queenstown to Milford Sound had a Wi-Fi hotspot called GreatSights (The bus company who did the North Island tours).
We hit the road, and after a brief stop in Frankton to pick up more passengers, we headed towards Cromwell - the junction point where all the busses go their different ways, between Dunedin, Invercargill, Christchurch, and the Glaciers.
This was the road I had been on the day before for the wine tour, so I recognised the wineries and vineyards as we went past them, as well as being able to call ahead of time when the world's first ever commercial bungee jump bridge was approaching - though despite my telling fellow passengers, they didn't take their cameras out until after we had passed - I tried at least!
Before we reached Cromwell itself, the bus stopped at Mrs Jones' fruit stall. After Cromwell, we stopped off for a short time in Wanaka, which is a popular destination in all seasons, due to having great summer weather, and great skiing in the winter. The approach to Wanaka has a full blown puzzle mazeplace, which reminded me of the puzzle maze house location in the Runescape game.
The last stop before we went in to the pass was Makarora Country Cafe, with some nice views of the hills from all angles.
The mountains were looming by now, and soon we were heading up in to the pass. The clouds were low at this point, but it wasn't actually raining, so when we pulled over at Thunder Creek Falls, we all piled out to take in the sights.
The bus driver swapped busses with the bus coming from Nelson at this point, so that they both end up their journeys back where they started, but in different busses, which is a pretty good arrangement.
We headed back down the pass on the other side and soon arrived at the next stop of the day which was a fish farm location. I didn't have any tea there, but did have a look around the board full of leaflets to find out what to do i Franz Josef, finding a guided tour, and horse trekking, as well as a wild life center where I might actually be able to see a Kiwi!
We set off again, and the bus stopped at Bruce Bay to let people take photos, though it didn't seem very photogenic to me, I should perhaps look it up to find out why it is so special!
When we reached Fox Glacier, it had started to rain, and this persisted throughout the night after we reached Franz Josef.
When I arrived in the dorm, there were 3 Australian girls already there, who were on holiday for 10 days in New Zealand.
I went back to the reception so that I could book on the events for the day, and worked out an itinerary which involved walking to the glacier in the morning, going to the wildlife center for lunch.
With that achieved, I went to get groceries for the next few days and get cash, as reception had told me that the horse trek people only took cash.
I found some lamb burgers for a great price and bought some loose carrots and sweet potatoes to go with them, as well as some bread and other sandwich making stuff, scouted out where the glacier tour set off from, and then went to the bank machine.
There was a big 'Out of Order' sign on the ATM, so I went in to the Kiwi Center it was attached to , to find out if there was another one. They advised me that the ATM had been hit by lightening and that a vendor was coming round the next day to try and fix it, and that there were no others in the whole of Franz Josef!
I got back to the dorm, and met Rosie from Oxford, who was in New Zealand also on Holiday (rather than working). As I was slightly concerned about how I was going to manage the already booked horse riding payment, I gave them a call, and they reassured me that they accepted ePOS, so there was nothing to worry about.
I went to cook dinner, which was probably the best one I'd made so far, the sweet potatoes and carrots were the perfect compliment to the minty lamb burgers!
Back to the dorm and I started to get ready for bed, when Leonie arrived. She recognised me from the Milford Sound - Queenstown bus a few days ago, though it took me a while to remember her as being the person sat behind and across from me. She was so late to the hostel, as she had been unable to get the bus due to a mix of credit card problems and the bus being sold out.