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Published: December 18th 2006
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Its coming on Christmas and the sun is shining the sky is blue or was yesterday today its more reminiscent of Scotland - a scotch mist but its early still and the one thing you can say about weather in NZ its changeable. But to our tale after a very pleasant walk along 6 mile creek we returned to Murchison and headed out to meet Brian and Bella. They live some 11km west of Murchison itself. Their propoerty consists of a bit of garden, a bit of pasture ( Brian has 2 calves he's raising for the meat) and a bit of mainly native bush with a small burn running along between the pasture and the bush. We were made most welcome and spent a brilliant evening - a few beers, wine etc and roast lamb et all prepared by Bella.
The next morning still feeling slightly rough we set off for our river kayaking adventure. It was great if somewhat exhausting as never having used a kayak my technique was sadly lacking and I had to make up for my lack of skill by brute force. We kayaked several miles down the Buller River - no major rapids
but plenty of white water. Although I managed to stay upright mainly through a combination of determination, brute strength and fear Wendy went over twice but seemed to be just as happy floating downstream on her back as she was in the kayak. In the afternoon Brian and Bella took us to look at a couple of eco-houses which had been built in the area (similar climate to Scotland). The first was straw bale and we spent best part of an hour talking to the owner/builders, the second mud/straw brick both were grist to the mill as far as our own self-build adventure goes. Wendy now wants a deck/verandah along the south side of our yet-to-be built house. We then went for a short stroll taking in some of the local beauty spots before returning to Brian and Bella's for another excellent repast, few more beers, wine etc. Great time, great craik, beautiful place. Almost forgot to mention our introduction to Brian's friendly weka ( small flightless native bird) and his semi-tame eels (they live in the creek and the largest is some 3 - 4 ft long they both come to be fed (small blobs of mince dropped in
the creek).
The following morning we set off for the West Coast - great weekend - many thanks to our hosts. The previous evening's rain had pretty well stopped and we had a smooth trip down the Buller Gorge the road swooping and curving alonside the river valley.
Stopped in Westport for our second breakfast (brunch?) then headed up the coast to do a shortish walk up Charming Creek.
En route we passed Granity where our Woofing hostessChristine's friend Lesley lives. Called in and were invited to camp in her garden overnight.
Charming Creek proved to be aptly named although it could easily have been called a river as it is quite sizeable (some 10 - 20 yds wide). The creek winds down through a steeply sided canyon and the track follows an old railway line for some 3 miles or so climbing gently till you reach a suspension bridge over the river (the old railway bridge being long gone). As you cross the suspension bridge you get great view of the falls some 50 yds up stream (just round the corner).
We returned to Lesley's set up our tent then helped her tidy
up the garden before tea. Lesley has a beautiful place with a long, large garden partly vegetable garden (complete with polytunnel) with a rear gate leading directly to a fantastic shingle beach which stretches for miles in both directions. An absolutely idyllic spot especialy in the afternoon sunshine. Went for a walk after dinner, another great meal finished off by a large whisky out on the deck.
After dinner we went for a short walk along the beach towatch the sunset accompanied by Lesley's dog Skye. Beautiful sunset then back for a really special treat Lesley has a latge bath house in her garden so we had the rare treat of a soak and a bath - heavenly.
A reasonably early night and awoke in the morning to find rain had returned
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