Ice ice baby

The time to get on the ice was here, but our stupid alarm never went off coz the iPhone died at some stage during the nite. Luckily though I woke up only 10mins after the alarm was supposed to so all was not lost, it was just a bit rushed to get to the hike centre but we made it. Didn't take too long either before we were fully geared up and ready to go. After about 5 mins on a bus we were there, in the glacier valley and it looked good. Then we started the walk, the hardest part was actually gettin to the ice cuz we had to cross 2km of rock. But once we donned our spikes and were on the ice it was easy going. The ice was awesome and looked sweet. There were caves and fissures everywhere exposing the deep blue ice from the depths of the glacier. It's mad actually, the glacier is about 180m thick and moves at about 20cm per day which is crazy fast for a piece of ice that big. So we spent about 5 hours on the ice itself going about 2/3 the way up it to the high valley where the ice walls were about 25m tall and were nothing but pure ice. It was a cool experience up there and luckily as soon ad we stepped onto the ice the skies clear and there was nothing but blue around, then once we stepped off it started to rain so we were pretty lucky with good weather for it. We got a free pass to the hot glacier pools too so we headed there in the evening. There was 3 pools, one at 36 degrees, one at 38 and another at 40 and my gid they were good. It was pure glacier water too which wa even nicer but they did the body good and heated us up so much after the day of ice. So we caught a bus outta there the next day and headed south to Wanaka. We crossed the biggest fault line in NZ too, between franz and fox glaciers, it was insane, a massive crevice cutting through the valley. Apparently the plates are colliding so much they created the southern alps and that the next earthquake is long overdue, over 1000 years in fact so the reckon when it happens it's goin to split the south island in 2. We made it to Wanaka without the quake happening which was a relief but unfortunately the rainy weather from franz had beat us to Wanaka so it was the best of days when we got here. But we really wanted to do paragliding here before we left so we waited to book it until this morning. I woke early and peeked out the window to be blinded by sun and blue skies. Up we got and within 40mins we were on the bus up a mountain to jump off it soon. The drive was stunning, passing the lake and getting the views if the mountains all around us. We were flying from 1100m above ground level, half way up Treble cone. When we got up there the view wa spectacular. Just amzing like. It was time to get our gear on, helmet-check, gloves-check, harness-check, pilot-check, wings- check, then simply run! Ground is gone and were 1100m in the sky. Simple. Neither if us had any fear and didn't even think anything of jumping off a perfectly good cliff into the sky. Then it was pure air. Flying above the kestrels and hawks below and just winding around the mountain side. It was so nice up there. It was over way too soon though and as soon as we landed we both wanted to do it again. Amazing. So then this afternoon we caught another bus, only just over an hour, in Queenstown, the land of the fearless. First stop on the agenda was the Mecca that is the lengendary Fergburger. The biggest and best burgers in the world. It was sublime. That's the only way to describe it. Every backpacker in the country knows of it and it has been the most recommended place in the whole country, eveyine and I mean everyone tells everyone to go because it's just that good, though, eat 2 and death is certain.