New Zealands south island is pretty spaced out. I didn't appreciate this at the time, until I got on the coach from nelson to fox glacier for 10 hours. Beautiful scenery though!
The coach driver was very nice, had a chat about England. He likes going on canal boats! He also claimed he met prince Harry and William.
I onky stayed 2 nights in fox. I stayed in the only backpackers as the place is tiny. Its town centre is 200m! Its all about tourism and the glacier. The only tour company that goes to the glacier is the fox glacier company, you can walk on the ice and do a day tour. Unfortunately for me this trip was cancelled until September due to the glacier being unstable.
So I walked to view the glacier for free! I went with 2 guys I met from the hostel. One was from Korea and the other was from Taiwan. The man from Korea spoke really good English and wants to be a air host. It took 2 hours to reach the glacier from the hostel.
The scenery was gorgeous, down a valley of granite stone, past a bright blue river of rapids. You can walk up to view the glacier but not go on it due to how dangerous it is.
We managed to get a lift back to the hostel from one of the tour guides. He was from texas, which meant I had an afternoon free to explore the mirror lakes. A lake so calm it reflects the mountains surrounding it. It takes 1 and a half hours to walk around it.
I definitely went at a good time of year. There is no way it would be as fun to walk so much in one day if it was hot.
