Westport Motels Westport

Day 77 - Left Nelson on long(ish) journey south to Westport. Stopped for a couple of walks on the, managed to get lost around the Nelson Lakes and had to turn back (i blame the girls i was following!). Unlike previously, the bus is now full. Also unlike previous buses, it seems more of a mixed crowd in terms of ages and genders (my last bus seemed to have lots of school leavers for some reason).<br><br>Got to Westport around 4pm, had a look around ...

... we headed for the Pua pub (for short). Les an 84 year old guy lives there and is the host. The rooms smelt a bit funky where Les disinfects the rooms, but they were warm and alright. After helping my roomates Lloyd (Bubblewrap guy) and James (Facebook) get ready, I put on my ninja outfit and we headed off to the pua pub. The pub was quite small, but cosy with a fireplace, pooltable and polaroids of all the previous Kiwi Experience gruops ...

... gedraengt. Das sah schon spitze aus. Der Tag hat auch schon total entspannt angefangen, mit einem Stop in Okarito, 12 km vom Highway 6 weg, einer Ministadt an einer 3km langen Lagune. Hier gab es nix zu gucken und nix zu tun. Genau deshalb bin ich dort hingefahren. Um einfach mal eine Weile nur am Strand entlangzuspazieren, dem Meer zu lauschen, Steine und angeschwemmte Stoecke zu inspizieren und die Seele baumeln zu lassen. Herrlich! Nur einige km weiter lag Lake Mapourika ...

... all hit the beach armed with our tequila and beer jugs. Once we'd seen the sunset in the shadows of mount cook we headed up to the pub for our bargain bucket meal - 10 dollars for enough food to feed the five thousand! Thirty minutes later everyone was back in the pub dressed to impress in their beach themed outfits. I opted for a pink rubber ring and spent most of the evening trying to squeeze as many people into the ring at once. Tonight was the ...

... framing the lake. We initially considered doing a hike on one of the many tracks here, however, the weather forecast wasn't great and the weather can quickly turn at this time of year (November), catching many a tourist unprepared and having to be rescued. The tourist centre gives harsh warnings about this, calling the tourists fools in so many words! So being fair weather walkers, we decided to chill out for a few days here and treat ourselves to an overnight cruise ...

... a little bigger town - maybe 50 people lived in the area. The only two places open were the gas station and the market (with only canned food). After meeting the shop owner and the gas station man we realized how creepy this town was. Also, we would be camping on the town's rugby field in the middle of no where...alone with no other campers...we decided to leave. Usually that would be nice but we just got a weird feeling about the place ...

We woke up next to a big hole so went to investigate. This was a huge underground limestone cave system, you should not attempt caving here. Unfortunately, if you are not caving it´s just a nice woody walk to a cave hole. Later that day we donned a hat and a torch to investigate a series of caves that included stalactites that you can play ...

... she had heard a clunking noise reminiscent to the sound made when her gearbox in her Peugeot went. Aw maaaannn. That guy had warned us about that too. We decided to get to the campsite and judge on what we would do in the morning as it was pretty dark out. So, we had dins and an early night wondering what was gonna happen the next day.... So day 5 of our 2 week trip, we wake up, check the oil and it was quite low, which it shouldn't be really but whatever. Checked the water and it ...

... Wanderweg durch ein Flusstal fuehrte uns dann bei strahlendem Wetter zu den verheissenen Quellen und die waren nach der langen Wanderschaft eine unbeschreibliche Wonne. Ich war der erste oben und hatte eine Stunde lang die Quellen fuer mich (etwas getruebte Freude, da die ortsansaessigen sandflies mich auch ganz fuer sich hatten). Es ist ein unbeschreibliches Gefuehl in der Sone in genau richtiger Badewannentemperatur unter den schneebedeckten Bergen zu liegen ...