Tomorrow came around and just before picking Jake up we popped in to the DOC centre to see if there was anything else worth doing around Franz. I spotted a picture of some hot pools and after speaking to the lady in there, learnt that it was a 2 day trip up in to natural hot springs in the mountains!! The only problem was that it was an hours drive back in the other direction. 

 Franz Josef was a point where I only really wanted to stay for a day. This all changed when we met up with Jacs old friend from Wales Jake. Jac had been trying to contact him for a few days and it was kind of fate that they happened to be in the same place at the same time, as both of their original plans would have landed them in different places. We headed for a coffee and a bowel of chips and the boys began to catch up with each other. Jake was good craic and fucking hilarious. I instantly felt like I’d also known him all these years and was also just catching up with an old friend.

Walking out of the DOC centre in Haast it was of course still pissing it down and we were still soaking. With most of the activities to do around here being long walks, I guessed this was going to be one of those days spent covering a bit of distance and then chilling in the car. After 40 minutes of driving we pulled in to the Monro Beach car park to make up a bit of lunch and plan what our next move was going to be. As Jac looked up things to do in the area, he realised we were at the beach where the rare Tawaki penguin breeds. 

Ooooh I do like penguins. The walk was 45 minutes to the beach which aint all that bad, but 1 and a half hours return in the rain. would it really be worth it? 

After finally ticking Milford sound of the list it was time to head north and start covering some ground via the west coast. However not before making a quick stop in Wanaka to pick up my camera that id stupidly left at a friends. I stopped off by rays just in time to do a little ogling over Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic, grabbed my camera and then hit the road ready for the next part of the adventure.