Westport and Greymouth

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The drive to Westport was equally spectacular in terms of scenery, but as it gets dark about 5:30pm in New Zealand in the winter, we didn't see much of it. We arrived at our campsite that evening pretty tired after all our walking at Abel Tasman that day. As soon as we checked in we headed into the town to get some burgers for dinner. After dinner, we watched a DVD in Red Dwarf and headed to bed. It was another early start the next day to get to Greymouth. The next morning at breakfast, a guy staying at the park told us that there had been lots of accidents around the country due to black ice ont he roads. He warned us to be careful, especially since we were driving south. We cautiously set off for Greymouth, which was only a couple of hours drive away. We arrived in Greymouth in one piece (no black ice!) and couldn't find any campsite to stay in. We went to an i-site (there's one in every tourist town, its tourist information) and asked about where we could stay. The lady pointed us in the direction of Neptunes Backpackers- a hostel that allows campervans to park in the carpark and use the hostel facilities. It sounded good to us- it would be nice to stay in a hostel again. Hostels are great for meeting new people and there's always a good atmosphere. We parked the car in Neptunes carpark and checked in with Amy, the receptionist. The hostel used to be a seaside hotel owned by an Irish guy about a 100 years ago. Its really sea-sidey with sea scenes painted on the walls and loads maritime ornaments and pictures. There were also a few fish and turtle tanks.

Once we had some lunch (beans on toast!) we walked to the local museum, which is an old house filled with stuff from Greymouth. The museum also housed archives for family tree research. We had a look around, and learned about Greymouth's sea-faring industry, how it was colonised, the huge mining industry and the gold rush. The museum is pretty much the only tourist attraction in Greymouth, so after that we went to the only other place irish people would go: the pub. We found an Irish pub and hung out there for a while, before walking around the decent-sized town. Earlier-on, we found the hostel had an oven (a rare occurrence) so we bought a pizza to cook that evening for dinner. When we got back to Neptunes, Amy was rounding up people for a drinking game that night. We had a full box of goon in the car so we opted in. So after our pizza, we showered, made up the bed and headed into the lounge for a game of "Ring of Fire" which is basically "Kings". If you don't know what Kings is just google it- it takes way too long to explain!

We sat on the comfy couch next to the wood-burning stove and everyone introduced themselves. There were about 10 people there, all from different places. It was important we learned each others names because in "Kings" if you forget someone's name you have to drink. It's really cold in Greymouth as it was very windy, so it was nice to be warm in the lounge. Orlagh was the name no-one could remember! Kiwis had real trouble pronouncing my name, its the "r" they have trouble with. I've been called all sorts in New Zealand, but not Orlagh. One of the lads, Victor, from Germany, had already started drinking his goon before the game even started, so he was way ahead of us. When a guy from Samoa went to use the bathroom without a toilet card, Victor shouted "NO! You must not leave ze room. It is FORBIDDEN!". We had a good laugh at his expense, especially when he was the "Teethmaster". This meant that whenever he saw someone bearing their teeth, he could command them to drink. Problem was, he didn't know what teeth were. He disappeared and came back with his dictionary. After about 5 minutes he roared "Teez! Ah, from ze vord tooz!". By this time, the teethmaster role had passed to someone else. Eventually poor Victor ran out of steam and passed out behind the couch. At least things were a bit peaceful now!

Matt decided it would be funny to stick a pot on Victors head and hit it with a wooden spoon, and everyone was in stitches laughing. The game then continued while Victor slept behind the couch. Olly; who came from the UK and was travelling around NZ with his buddy Jake, who was a Sky TV salesman; had a "Gheko" rule for the game. This was where a 7 card was turned over, and everyone had to get onto the ground or at a wall where they touched their hands, feet and belly to the surface. Last one to do it had to drink. As the night went on, the lounge got messier because of all the drunken "Ghekos" trying to get on the ground! Ramco, from Holland, was not impressed when Dave asked him why the Dutch were doing so badly in the Euros. We had to explain to him that we had a bet for the Dutch to win, and now we couldn't stay in a fancy hotel! Our game of Kings came to a halt when Victor awoke and broke the turtle tank, and the water started gushing out through the cracks onto the carpet. Amy was furious and sent Victor to bed, while everybody started filling buckets with water from the tank and emptying them down the toilet or outside. Amy got the turtle into another tank. Dave patched up the big tank with parcel tape. After that, the game got back in swing, with Matt turning over the last King and drinking the "Kings Cup", into which people had poured all sorts of drink. He cleverly got away with it though, by pouring a shot glass of the mixture for everyone.

After the game was over, we hung out for a while in the lounge, and Olly and Jake brought in their cat, Masimoto, who they have been taking around on their travels. He's named after some Samouri. He was a very jittery cat, darting behind the couch and under the pool table if anyone even looked at him. He spotted the turtle in the little tank and started to paw at the glass. Olly was telling us about his experience in the Christchurch earthquake. He was on the top floor of a building and just found a doorway and sat it out. He says loads of buildings around him crumbled, so he was very lucky. Olly and Jake then tried to teach us a new card game called "Grass" which was very complicated for our drunken and tired states, so we called it a night once everyone started to nod off, filled the hot water bottles and headed to bed. Next morning we woke around 10 (Amy was very leniant on our check out time!). We got ready to head off. Amy had been up since 8 to open reception and she was not in a good state. Olly and Jake had slept in the lounge, avoiding their cold campervan, so we headed in to see them before we left. Victor was sitting quietly on the computer, keeping his head down. We said goodbye to everyone who was awake, and began our journey to Franz Joseph, a small town in the alps at the foot of a massive glacier.

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Photos

Matt Drinking the King's Cup
L-R Matt, Jake, Ramco and Olly