Day 17

Around Fox Glacier. We drove over to Franz Josef Glacier today because we'd only been able to book onto a 2pm heli trip. It worked out well, as we were able to spend an hour in an internet cafe sorting out accommodation in Golden Bay & Nelson for the week after New Year. We have seriously got shafted without the campervan, as we'd thought that with camp sites booked, we'd be able to change them to cabins with ease. Not so! We've actually scraped the barrell for somewhere to rest our heads in the Abel Tasman region, and were about to give up when we rang the iSite (Tourist Info bookings etc) and they found us somewhere to stay for the entire time. What a relief.
We bought some steaks for supper and drove back to Fox, through the dense rainforest bush sheltered by the towering mountains above to the east. Once we'd checked on the helicopter people, they said we'd need to delay it until 3pm as things were changeable. But at 3:30pm we were still waiting for a helicopter to land and pick us up when they got radio'd to say, "no luck today. we'll have to try for tomorrow". So we're booked for a 9:30 am flight in the morning. We siezed the opportunity to pop up to the Dept of Conservation's offices where Lisa & Kevin's (our Kiwi mates in Berlin) friends live - Kim & Gary. They were very welcoming and we had a walk-around their garden and showed Zack their chooks. It wouldn't last though as Zack started acting up again, so we thought, 'let's exit now, before it all goes for a ball of chalk.' So we did.
We came home and cooked up our steaks, while Zack jumped on the trampolene. I bought some great sundried tomatoes in Ashburton, that are in liquid but not oil. They're fabulous - such an intense flavour - so we popped a handful of them into the salad.

We must be bonkers ! Day #2 of no dummy and we're both taking strain. The biting has gone up a notch, and we've had a child completely out of control at certain points today. The hardest thing is that smacking is illegal in NZ, and Zack knows how hard it is when he's embarrassing you in public. Disciplining your child in these circumstances requires quite a bit of creativity and stamina.
Zack has been in his bed for more than 30 minutes and still going strong, talking at length, using all the words he knows, and constantly returning to "down" and "ladder" because I've put him in the bunkbed. He is now lying with his blanket - which he'd thrown away about 10 times, and saying repetitive phrases. I hope this means sleep is not more than 30 minutes away... And true to form we have suddenly gone into silence and more regular deep breathing. Praise the Lord! All in all it's taken about 40 minutes to get him to this point. We had an early night too - how marvellous.