Had breakfast, showered then drove to the Franz Josef Glacier car park. We walked the FJG valley walk to a viewpoint 500 meters from the glaciers terminal face 1 hour 30 minutes, then walked to Peter Pool just 20 minutes return which was supposed to have great views of Mount Cook and reflections in the pool but the wind was making waves on the surface and cloud covered Mount Cook. We drove towards Fox Glacier village but before we got there we turned off to Lake Matheson which had views of Mount Cook and Mount Tasmin. We had lunch in the van then walked round the lake for about 1 hour 30 minutes meeting a couple from Lichfield in the UK and also taking lots of pictures of the lake and southern alps. We had flat whites at the Matheson cafe which is highly rated and a bit posh with lots of tourists. We decided to drive to Gillespie's beach where we found a free campsite for the night it only had toilets and water. It was a bit windy but we managed to cook a meal with the awning up. There were lots of young people there in small campervans like ours and tents because it was free. We saw another campervan exactly the same as Tiny rented from the same company. We had a chat with them and found out that they were a young French couple who were travelling round the south island like us but were doing it in the opposite direction and they told us where they had found free sites for the night along the way. They also recommended places to visit which we had not thought of After talking to them we deceided to definatly go to the Catlins on the south coast
