You probably noticed that during the last post I started to diverge from the journal script, since the journal didn't say things like to fill up space in this entry. I'm not sure, but I'm getting bored writing and reading the journal entries. I'm not sure if it's just that New Zealand, for all its scenic beauty, doesn't have a lot of material for funny cultural and historical stories like Asia or Europe, or if it's just moving too slowly because I have a lot more material to cover, but it feels like this section is dragging. I'll still stick mostly to the journal at least for the next couple of trips and see how things pan out in different locations, then adjust the writing style as needed. Back to the plodding journal...It was about 8 am when the helicopter landed, and since we still had the whole day ahead of us when we landed, we decided to drive 20 km to the next town over, Fox Glacier. The guidebooks all say it's a tossup between the two as to where to base yourself for glacier exploration, but don't be fooled, Fox Glacier is much better. It's smaller, there didn't seem to be any tour groups, and the people were much, much younger. It's also quainter and the Fox Glacier Hotel looked like the Ritz compared to the dump in Franz Josef.