Blogs from Westport, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

Woke up bright and early for the horse ride Id booked the previous day. Rode a beautiful chesnut called Walter and he was cool (not so little pony). As some of the group had never ridden and were decidedly nervous the guides split the group in two. We headed off for a few canters leaving the first timers in the dust. We rode through the bush then along the sandy banks of the Buller River through some of the magnificent scenery we'd seen from the bus. It was awesome. We also headed off to the gallop field en route to which I was warned that Walter was the fastest and most mental! great! After that nugget of info I was bracing myself. He was cool though. He Knew he was about to get a gallop and ... read more

Well, I am now in the South Island of New Zealand. Near Westport to be exact! I travelled to several places in the North Island including Taupo, Tauranga, Rotorua and Napier, all are nice, too clean and organised for my liking I think... I gave up on the farm as I wanted to do more hands on stuff with animals, so asked several treking centres if I could come and work in exchange for accomodation. I had loads of resonses and chose one that looked the most interesting. It is called Bullers Adventure Tours and has all sorts of adventure options from white water rafting to quad biking. I am helping with the treks and looking after the 11 horses, with another girl. The scenery around here is amazing, I am based in the Buller Gorge ... read more

argg!! chippy's exhaust pipe broke in half. yah yah, you can laugh....but it's not funny. we are stuck in this crappy industrial town with no car and nothing to do. bleck. and it's saturday so we have to be here til monday when the garages open again. i slept on all this negativity and now i'm over it. just 12 k's out of town is cape foulwind....another seal colony and some really rugged coastline. i rented a bike and road out there and back for the day. it was beautiful, as most things are here. not a bad way to spend the day and tomorrow chippy gets fixed and we're off to the glaciers. woohoo!! woohoo is right. we're now at the franz josef glacier. it's a great little mountain town....boardered by the franz josef glacier ... read more

Day 65 An early start, we headed for Abel Tasman National Park. We went for a walk along the beach where we parked ourselves for a bit. The tide came in loads in the few hours we were there so we had to go an alternative way back! In the afternoon Stuart did a jet boat ride on the Buller Gorge which was good fun, the boat did quick turns and made everyone soaking wet.... read more