Day 10 - Merry Christmas from Franz Josef Glacier

December 25th - Christmas Day.
Daniel was the first person up this morning.  He pulled back the curtains hoping that we might have a White Christmas, but alas not today.  It was overcast, and there was a light drizzle in the air but no snow.  It has snowed in New Zealand on Christmas day before, in fact snow can fall on any day of the year in the Southern Alps (They are closer to the Antarctic than Australia is).

We had more time for breakfast this morning, so for Christmas breakfast we had pancakes before opening a very Christmas presents that had found their way to New Zealand and were sitting under our miniature Christmas tree.  Christmas had a very different feeling this year as there was no extend family to share Christmas with.  It was nice to be lazy howevery, and the boys had plenty of time to play with their presents instead of rushing around.  Daniel received an ipad mini for Christmas, Josh received an ebook reader, Mazz received some candles and Paul received some shortbread.  Not a bad effort 4000kms from home!.

Afterwards we watched some Doctor Who episodes on TV (It appears there was a Christmas day Dr Who marathon running), after which we headed into town for a walk up to the Franz Josef Glacier.  The walk was about 2.0km from the car park to the base of Franz Josef Glacier.  Along the way be passed though a stretch of rain forrest, then walked along the bed of the glacier valley, passed waterfalls and walked alongside a riverstream that ran along the bed of the valley.

We returned home afterwards for some Christmas pudding and custard followed by a screening of "The Hobbit" - extended edition, another one of the boys Christmas presents.