Greymouth - Franz Josef - day 59

After getting back on the Magicbus, we drove further down the coast to a place called Hokitika, a town that's famous for it's greenstone. We went into the greenstone factory and walked by a cafe that claims to have New Zealand's biggest teapot collection! From there we went on to Ross, a tiny place that's famous for it's gold. We walked around for a bit, saw a gold panning demonstration and went into the old jail and a traditional gold diggers' house. After that, we drove to Franz Josef, a tiny town next to a famous glacier. After lunch, Nat went skydiving!! The plane left from a tiny airstrip in Fox Glacier (about 25km south of Franz Josef Glacier) and flew around the Southern Alps, providing amazing views of Mount Cook, Mount Tasman and the glaciers. It took about 20 minutes to get to 12000 feet (approximately 3800 meters) and after the doors opened, Nat and the instructor jumped out! The freefall lasted for about 45 seconds and was absolutely incredible! It was actually pretty cloudy, but the freefall was above the clouds, giving some great views of the mountains and the Tasman Sea (there were no clouds over the sea) and making it feel like the clouds would stop our fall. The instructor opened the parachute after 7000 feet of freefalling. From there it took another 4-5 minutes to get to the ground. It was absolutely amazing! I would recommend it to anyone! The Fox Glacier skydiving is recognised as being the 2nd most scenic skydive in the world! (only after Mount Everest, where they charge you 35,000USD per jump...) In the meantime, Pierre went for a walk in the forest around Franz Josef. In the evening we enjoyed a delicious free vegetable soup at our hostel, Chateau Franz. Later on we went out to the Blue Ice Bar with some people from the bus.

Weather: very sunny in the morning, rather cloudy in the afternoon, unpleasantly cold