From Wellington to Franz Josef

As my ankle began to slowly improve, I took the ferry over to the south island of New Zealand. I arrived in quiet Picton - but with little to do there I moved on to Nelson the following day.

In Nelson I had a nice stroll to the centre of New Zealand, but most of my time was spent in the hostel. I wanted to do a day trek in Abel Tasman, but my ankle was refusing to finish off healing. Luckily, my hostel was fantastic. The Green Monkey provides free internet, free hot chocolate and free cake - what more could I want? I spent much of my time reading a couple of Dan Brown books or playing Pictionary and Scrabble with the other travellers.

Eventually I decided to put my ankle to the test and do the Abel Tasman day trek. The scenery was fantastic, but once I reached the halfway point and checked the time, I found myself one hour behind schedule. My bus would leave at 4:30, and so I had no choice but to speed up and plough to the end. This put quite a strain on my ankle, and the final two hours were particularly uncomfortable. Nevertheless, once I'd finished I knew could finally move on from Nelson to the next destination.

My next destination was Franz Josef village; the stop-off point for the Franz Josef glacier. My first day there involved a walk up to the glacier face and back. Again, the final steps pained my ankle. Nevertheless I decided to do a half-day trek onto the glacier the following day, and despite almost changing my mind at the last minute, I'm glad I did it. Ploughing over the glacier and through the icy crevices was fun, and with the aid of a little ankle support provided for me by the tour company, my ankle held up well.

Tomorrow I move south to Wanaka.