Annabelle Motel Hokitika

... stew were gorgeous and well worth the investment,
good work boys!

What the Poo pub is known for is the fancy dress party it holds everytime a bus turns up,
we collectively come up with a theme...are you ready for it...Men in drag and girls bag!
there are a few prizes for best dress so its worth the effort and as you can probably see
from the ...

... The Forrest winery had too much choice and the young English chap leading the tasting spent ages talking about them, he was interesting to begin with but went on and on and on……….I wanted to shout just pour the b****y wine.

For anyone interested in a wine tasting holiday I would recommend staying in Blenheim or Renwick and hiring a bike to get round all the wineries – they are all very close and the roads are flat. I did try another winery ...

The Kiwi Bus stops in Mahinapua, a place in the middle of no where, to stay in a pub owned by the oldest publican in NZ, an 83 year old called Les. The bus has the whole place to our selves, and each night there is a fancy dress party with a different theme. Our theme was bin bags. After eating a beautiful feast of venison stew and steak, cooked by the legendary Les himself, we got to work on making our costumes. I went as a robber ...

... potions!! The next morning we left Wanaka and went for a trip in the Matukituki valley and walked up the Rob Roy valley to see a retreating glacier. Highlight was a waterfall that went upwards; very confused. Lowlight was walking through fields of very big cows when a helicopter with lazy American tourists in came by and buzzed the cows making them run around us. Never seen cows run or jump over gulleys before ...

... piles of neatly stacked pancakes. We then stopped in Greymouth to collect a few other people and do some shopping for our costumes for tonights fancy dress party. The party was a 'P' party and therefore you had to go as something / someone begging with 'P' and with little resources it was rather difficult. We finally decided on our outfits and brought the necessary items. Laura and Sherri went in their PJ's so purchased dressing gowns and slippers, Zoe ...

... friends. The only shock of the day was 12 kms before Greymouth. This brown tourist sign read Something Valley turn off. The white sign underneath read No Return. Once you get in you'll never leave! Greymouth had light showers when we arrived but that did not put me off a walk with my Dad. We bought supplies, checked out Monteith's brewery and returned to the motel shattered, but with a Dopplebock beer for me.

... waves! you can see when you are along the west coast that when they say its rugged it really is!! but lovely and here was even black sand, strange but nice as it wasnt sticky at all!! then anna met her brother and went off to the glaciers! alone again! she was really nice too! i watched the sunset again, but walking down the river this time, and again got some great photos but there was a huge line of cloud right on the horizon so you couldnt get the really low sunset pix, still good ...

... German couple (who were discussing whether to go running or walking that day!) and a young Australian couple who were also staying there. A great way to get into the life and culture of NZ. West Coast Wonders Whilst in Greymouth we travelled up the coast on a tour (only one other couple on it) driven and narrated by Linda, another local resident who was so enthusiastic about the area she would suddenly turn ...

... had to get back on the bus. That's really bad, especially when our destination is not worth it to be there in time. And with this astonishing nature I could spend hours walking around... The only thing you can do in Greymouth is a tour at the Monteith's brewery (btw. the smallest brewery I've seen so far...). And so of course almost everyone of us from the bus was there, and we had some ...

Friday 24 October Otira (Arthur's Pass) S 42° 49.8' E 171° 33.7' And Avalanche Peak Having done some minimal planning the evening before, picked Will up at about 08:30 and headed off west to the mountains. Well, to a shopping mall for Will to get a sweater and gloves, and then to the mountains. Oh, and a sandwich shop, but then direct to the mountains. The road to Arthur's Pass included a number of ...