Another rainy day and another lazy morning. We ate oatmeal in our hotel room and played more cards. Millie is getting very into Set which makes us both very proud. We finally left the room at 11ish.

The first activity of the day was a short hike to see the Franz Josef glacier. Or what’s left of it, anyway. We almost skipped it but I couldn’t face another day of letting the rain win, so I rallied everyone to get out, even if it meant getting soaking wet.

We drove the 30 minutes to the trailhead and then as we were getting out of the car, Nick realized he left his rain jacket at the hotel. Whoops. Luckily the heavy downfall had reduced to a mist and we set off.

We took a few different trails to different viewpoints, and at the final one we finally caught a glimpse of the glacier peeking through the clouds. We had told Millie we were going to see a glacier today and she was very excited. I think she was picturing us standing on top of a giant iceberg, so what we saw was a little underwhelming. It made me realize the urgency to show her a full glacier as soon as possible. There was a sign at this one showing its shrinkage over the last 100 years, which was a sad as you can imagine it to be.

We rambled around for about 1.5 hours until it started raining harder. You can see the start of it on the water in the above photo. As soon as we got into the car, it started pouring. We sat in the car, ate snacks, warmed up, and felt grateful at our lucky timing.

From here we headed to the Waiho Hot Pools. We saw a sign for these on the drive in yesterday and late last night in a fit of panic over the forecast I googled them and booked us a time slot.

They are private hot tubs, filled with glacier water and then heated with a wood stove. Let me set the scene: the smell of woodsmoke, the sound of raindrops and birds, privacy due to the thick greenery, and perfectly temperate hot water. It was extremely romantic, even with a 5 year old who kept pouring cold water on our heads to “make a trick on us”.

Millie loved it and somehow kept herself entertained for 90 minutes while we sat there and relaxed. After we got out I felt warm and cozy for the whole evening.

We drove back to our hotel, stopping for dinner along the way at what seems to be the only great restaurant in town. Nick had venison and I had slow cooked lamb. My lamb consumption in the last two weeks is up 3000%. There’s nothing better on a cold wet day like today.

Back at the hotel we had Sunday family movie night. Usually Nick makes the suggestions but I remembered loving the movie The Parent Trap as a kid, so we watched that. I assumed it would be an instant classic but at the end Millie said “yeah I didn’t really like that”. Better luck next time, mom!