Lake Mahinapuha

---

Heading down the west coast towards Mahinapuha we stopped in the morning for a 45 minute coastal walk at Cape Foulwind via yet another seal colony and some more interesting, stunning views across the ocean.

Later on we stopped at Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowholes which are so called because they look like stacks of pancakes. There were some pretty imopressive rock formations here, and some blowholes that threw water metres into the air, causing a salt water spray every time a big wave came in.

The fancy dress party that evening was based around anything beginning with the letter 'H'. Now, Rob had filled us in on the need for fancy dress, and we had already got our costumes sorted. We were going as pirates... Bugger! We stopped at Greymouth to get some more supplies and new costumes when we stumbled across pirate hooks, and so salvaged the situation and all dressed up as Captian Hook!

The venue for the party was the Mahinapuha Hotel, AKA the "poo pub" which was a bit of a dive, but 10 bucks got us a decent dinner of tenderised steaks and venison stew. We had a massive game of football on the grey sand beach next to the hostel where the English played the rest of the world and still outnumbered them. I can't for the life of me remember the score, but I will remmeber that playing barefooted and running across rocks to fetch the ball is not great on the soles of the feet.

After dinner everyone piled into the bar and we soon realised that our costumes were apallingly bad in comparison to some of the other efforts. Worthy of a mention was Saddam Hussein, complete with noose, a set of highlighters who won the prize for best dressed, although I think it should have gone to the Hobnob who had committed the crime of sticking 2 whole packs of hobnobs to a cardboard biscuit suit, and therefore making them inedible. In general it was the Brititsh who had made the best efforts, which had been noted over the years by the drivers and Les, who ran the whole show and was about 75 years old. Some foreign bird had come in normal clothes and had drawn a mostache on in permanent marker: Hitler of course ... classic.

Did we get a lie in after the party? Of course not! It was all aboard the bus by 9am for the next leg of our journey to Franz Josef.

---