On day 13, many of us take a heli-hiking tour of the Franz Josef Glacier before rejoining the others to continue our drive down the west coast. We stop briefly at Haast Beach before turning inland through Mount Aspiring National Park and around the bottom of the Southern Alps. We stay overnight at a Homestead in Makarora before continuing on through Wanaka to Queenstown on New Year's Eve day. Most of the group catches flights home before the new year celebrations but a few of us stay on for further adventures in the North Island.

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