Blogs from Westport, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

At last we have found some acommodation. "The Tripinn" at Westport. And joy joy NO SANDFLIES A lovely place to stay, staff were great and they had cheapish internet. We were able to catch up on a few of our blogs, as well as the mountain of washing we had amassed. After 3 days we were refreshed and ready to go again. Our first stop "Buller Gorge". The longest swing bridge in New Zealand! It was a doddle to cross - But we had been practising on smaller ones before this. Then the "Jet Boat" ride. An awesome 40 minutes of adrenalin rush. Then it was the flying fox back across the bullar gorge. An action packed day and we enjoyed every minute.... The following day we did a bit of whale watching (yet again) But ... read more

Spent 2 nights here, and last night watched the sun go down over the sea as the nearly full moon rose behind me! We walked up an old railway yesterday , that was built up to a coal mine in the hills. Goodness knows how they built it - it was hard enough on the path. there were waterfalls, rock falls, tunnels and rock arches all through the gorge, and a couple of swing bridges (not only do they swing, they also have very low sides - but I'm getting used to them!). Today we plan a visit to a nearby seal colony, then we'll move down to the next hostel a bit further down the coast, where there's another National Park, with some special formation rocks. ... read more

Well after the worst nights sleep yet (the hostel bunk bed had no clean top sheet so I had to sleep with my bath towel over me) we set off and head for the ferry. It takes 3 hours to get from Wellington in the North Island to Picton in the South Island, it started off sunny but then an hour in it started to rain, not a good sign! When we arrived in Picton it was absolutley throwing it down, so after first visiting the info centre for some maps we headed to the supermarket to stock up on food. After an interesting lunch on the Supermarket Carpark (not the most scenic view but there was no where else to go that was inside) we started on our Journey. As we were not that bothered ... read more

Pancake Rocks From Franz Josef, we headed north up the West Coast and stopped at Hokitika on route. Then we visited the fanous Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, which were pretty impressive, lots of layers of mudstone and limestone, although we couldn't see the pancake resemblance. We thought they should be called lasagne rocks (Rach's got lasagne on the brain) or maybe tiramisu rocks. The West Coast is quite wild, and there were a number of blowholes in the rocks, spraying seawater skyward. Crazy Crazy Golf We drove further North through Greymouth and decided to spend the night at a Kiwi camp in Westport. It was a lovely evening so we decided to enjoy a spot of crazy golf as there was an 18 hole course at the front of the camp. Amazingly Rach was playing quite ... read more

We wound about two-thirds of the way down the twisty Buller Gorge to the old mining town of Lyell for the night, with Geoff reminiscing about the last time he came down this way on his bike after hiking in Nelson Lakes National Park. The geologist and explorer Julius Haast named the Lyell mountain range and creek in honour of an eminent English geologist Charles Lyell long before anybody lived there - today Lyell is again just a grassy reserve tucked away at the side of the road where Lyell Creek flows out of the hills and joins the main gorge. Geoff remembers camping here before and being the only person in the campsite apart from a moldy caravan in the corner that was occupied by a guy that spent his days in the river, wearing ... read more