Blogs from West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 17

Another weekend, another Rotary event. "Rough and Tumble" was sponsored by the Westport Rotary club. The plan was to head out to the Rough and Tumble lodge near Seddonville (half way between Westport and Karamea) for a weekend of merrymaking and tramping. Seddonville was formerly a mining community named for past Prime Minister Richard Seddon (1893-1906 - frequently and aptly referred to as King Dick). It is currently home to a rare mollusc (giant land snail), which is found only in the Seddonville area. It is considered nationally endangered and has been the subject of considerable controversy involving the local coal mining operations. In the end a major project was undertaken to "relocate" the snails. We arrived at the lodge by convoy in the early afternoon. The Rough and Tumble bush lodge proved ideal wilderness accommodation ... read more

Lotsa noise again - didn't sleep alot but the ear plugs helped. Think the most we got in any one stint was 3 hours. It didn't help that we had to be at the train station by 7.45, taxi booked for 7.30 which means up to shower and eat at *groan* 6.30am. Susan was not impressed as I'm sure most of you can imagine. Mind you I wasn't feeling any different after my night of non-sleep! The taxi got us to the station with plenty of time to spare. Our seats were allocated on check-in which saved us having to fight with the oldies for the better seats. I have no doubt we would've lost the race! :-) (Just kidding, they were pleasant enough people really!) We were looking forward to the trip on the Tranz ... read more

Another fine day could not be passed up. I headed out to the coast to the Fox River about 20 minutes south of Westport and hiked about 8 kms inland alongside the river to a cave set into the wall of a limestone gorge. It was a spectacular, sunny day. The walk follows the banks of the river crossing it in two places before heading up the gorge along a path of slippery of rocks. The entrance to the cave is striking in its own right. I saw one young couple on the way to the caves, but there was otherwise no sign of anyone. This made the cave exploration all the more isolating. Exploring the cave alone and unguided was at times an eerie experience, with the constant sound of dripping water. An unanticipated sighting ... read more

Dag 3 - Gletschere Fra Hokitika kørte vi efter et par kilometer ind i landet, og mod Hokitika Gorge. Vi havde læst at vestkysten var kendt for sine regnskove, men dette var første gang vi fik en af se. Vi gik af små stier ind til den lille år, der løb gennem skoven. Vandet var helt turkis blå, og det var et imponerende syn. Derfra gik det tilbage til Hokitika og syd på mod Franz Joseph gletscher. Franz Joseph skulle være større og pænere end Fox gletscheren der ligge blot 30 km. derfra. Vi anede ikke helt hvad vi skulle forvente, men var en smule spændte. Man kunne køre op mod gletscheren, men skulle gå de sidste par km. Det var et flot område med regnskov helt tæt omkring gletscheren, der havde arbejdet en kæmpe ... read more

Our first stop was the Nelson Lakes National Park where we went for a walk alongside Lake Rotoiti, surrounded by snow capped mountains. After a BBQ sausage by the lake, we drove to Murchison for lunch. We continued through the very scenic Buller Gorge and arrived in Westport at 4pm where we watched an exciting last 15 minutes of the local rugby game. Then we walked around the small town and bought dinner and beers for the evening at the hostel. We sat in the cosy TV room and watched Austin Powers before having dinner and a couple of beers. We went to the local bar at 8.30pm where there was a live band and all the rugby players from both teams. A few of us pushed on to a reggae bar where I watched a ... read more