Nelson to Greymouth

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I got up even earlier this morning with one of the other girls from my dorm who was also travelling on the magic bus (the backpackers bus tour company I'd booked to see the South Island with). We had our breakfast then went to wait for the bis to find that it was pouring it down. We stood sheltered for as long as we could then we ran out to the bus when it appeared. The bus wans't too full which meant that everyone got two seats to themselves.

The itinerary for the day was Nelson to Greymouth with a few stops along the way. After only about an hour the bus driver informed us that we'd just stopped at the last traffic lights til Dunedin (pretty much the other end of the island and on the opposite coast!!). The scenery we were travelling through was amazong, very alpine looking with sheep everywhere and as far as you can see! Our first stop after a couple of hours was at a roadside caff for a coffee and a loo stop. After a few more hours of driving through the Paparoa National Park, which was stunning, we stopped and had a quick walk, called the truman track, to quite a dramatic beach with huge vrashing waves and blow holes!! We all piled back onto the bus and then stopped not too far down the road at a place called 'Punakaiki' to see the pancake rocks, which did actually look like stacks of pancakes - one of those freaky things like the giants causeway! The weather was a bit pooh and I was already feeling travel worn from sitting in the bus so I didn't really appreciate it as much as I should have, but none the less it was pretty cool. We stopped for a cuppa and then we got back on the bus getting into Greymouth early evening.

Greymouth pretty much lived up to it's name - Grey!! When we arrived all the magic bus people were put together, which was really cool as we'd not really spoken on the bus but all started to chat in the hostel. Everyone seemed to be really nice! I got on in particular with 2 Irish guys, Martin and Paddy, (travelling separately) and English girl called Sarah, and a Polish girl called Ewa (Eva). We had a nice evening sitting around the fire on huge sofas (did I mention how cold it was - Oh My Goodness!!) and turned in early for another early start!!

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