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The bus from Nelson to Westport departed at 8.30am from outside Fern Lodge; this meant I had to give myself plenty of time to walk there from Shortbread Cottage, so I left from there at around 8am so that I wasn't late! I was just glad to be on the bus after being kept on the waiting list for days on end! So as you can expect the bus was full to capacity! From Nelson we headed towards the Nelson Lakes National Park, stopping off at Richmond for people that hadn't brought breakfast and also to get lunch supplies as the driver had said that for anyone that wanted to we could chip NZ$5 each and he would buy us lunch! I had already made some jam sandwiches for my lunch so I didn't bother, along with a few others, as it would have defeated the object of making sandwiches the night before!
After a 30 minute stop in Richmond we continued onto towards the Nelson Lakes National Park! On the way the driver came on over the loud speaker as usual but this time, after introducing himself he told us that we would be on the bus with the same group of people for the next week or so and go into Queenstown together as nobody jumps off the bus along the West Coast of the south island which we were about to drive down, so he said being as we are going to be with each other for such a long time we should get to know each other a little better, so we played a 'game' where the people on the window seat of the bus would remain seated but the people on the aisle seat would move forward one seat, so that people kept changing seats and sitting next to new people, then we were given 5 minutes to chat to the new person that we found ourselves sitting next to before they moved to sit next to someone else, we did this for about 40 minutes so we got to know a fair amount of people on the bus instantly and it was very good for bonding with the others on the bus!
On arrival at Nelson Lakes National Park we parked next to the stunning Lake Rotoiti, which is surrounded by snow capped mountains and native New Zealand beech forest. It is one of the most beautiful spots in the world! It is a picturesque wilderness area of glacier lakes, beech forests and mountains. The forest is alive with birds, including tomtits, robins, the tiny riflemen and the South Island kaka. A highlight of the mountains is the Rotoiti Nature Recovery Project. This is 825 hectares of land that has been set aside as an island-like mainland refuge. Some rather brave people on the bus decided to go for a swim in Lake Rotoiti, in its freezing waters! They didn't last too long in their mind you and were quick to jump out, the bus driver had a little joke beforehand that we should all go in there as it is so nice and warm, but I knew it wouldn't be! They did all get really good pictures of their jump into the water however with the mountains in the background, and despite the weather and visibility both being poor; the pictures still came out well! After watching a few people madly jump into the lake, we all went and sat down in the picnic area where the driver had prepared lunch for all the people that chipped in NZ$5 whilst the rest of us just sat and ate what we had brought with us! After our lunch we all got back on the bus and we made our way to Murchison which was a further hour from the lake, here we stopped for another bite to eat if anyone so wished and a toilet stop, we also picked up a few more passengers who had made their way to Murchison from Christchurch on a different bus!
From Murchison we made our way down the amazing Buller Gorge, which is New Zealand's longest and is often described as the most scenic drive in the South Island, we travelled alongside the almighty Buller River, which rises from Lake Rotoiti and flows into the Tasman Sea at Westport. The Buller River's Maori name is 'Kawatiri' meaning deep and swift, which is quite fitting for a river that has the greatest flood discharge of all of New Zealand's rivers. Just before we entered Westport we met the team from Buller Adventure Tours where people that were doing activities that afternoon jumped off the bus so that they could do their respective activity, their choices were jet boating, quad biking, or horse trekking!
From here we made the remaining short journey into the centre of Westport, which has a mild climate with 2,000 sunshine hours a year. The first settlers in Westport were lured to the area with the promise of gold, when the gold began to dwindle, their attention turned to the hills north of Westport. A new source of wealth had been discovered - black gold - shiny bituminous coal. From the late 1870's the town embarked on its long history of coal mining. An obvious feature of the town is the breakwaters; these stretch out to sea, ending with a lighthouse on the end of the man-made construction, 86% of the land in the Westport area is under conservation management.
We were all dropped off at the same hostel which was called 'Bazils', and shown to our rooms, I was rooming with 3 blokes from Newcastle and 2 Canadian guys. The thing was there were only 4 bunk beds and one double bed, yet with little persuasion the two Canadians took the double, but insisted they were straight as....we didn't work out if they were or not! After paying the crazy lady at reception for our stay the lads from Newcastle and I sat outside on the patio and played cards! At the hostel you got a couple of dollars discount if you had a YHA card, and I was the only one out of the 4 of us that had one of the cards, so we all paid one by one using my card so that we all got the discount, and the nutty women didn't even notice what we were doing even though my name was on the card and we had to tell the woman what our name was so she could check us in, she would look at the card but still not notice her blatant mistake! Whilst playing cards we were given a cup of tea and a biscuit by this older couple who were in their fifties travelling on the Kiwi Experience, they hadn't realised it would be all young people on the bus but they took it in their stride and the bloke was just like one of the lads, they were so good to all of us youngsters on the bus which is why they became legends amongst us! The biscuit got us by for a bit but we were soon getting hungry so we went to the local supermarket to get some grub for dinner! I decided to chip in with the lads for dinner that night and we opted to have spaghetti bolognaise! After a couple more games of cards on our return we got the dinner underway, and not long after it was served! It was about 8pm by the time we had washed up and stuff, by which stage we had bumped into some people from the bus who had told us to go and have a look at their room which was huge and had its own kitchen and ensuite and massive dining area, whilst there they started to do their own aerobics and exercise class, as one of the girls on the Kiwi was an exercise teacher, so we all joined in for about half an hour until the routine was over, then we went back to our dorm for 10 minutes just to get ready for going out!
We then had to peg it into town as it was raining, we went to one of few bars along the street, most weren't even open! We had arrived just too late for the killer pool as we had been doing them exercises, but we found out the winner was Sue, who was the older woman travelling on the bus with her husband Dave, the prize she won was a picture and DVD package for a bungy, but she gave it away to another one of the lads on the bus which just goes to show how nice the couple were! Most of our bus had gone out to the bar so there was a good vibe about the place and we were all getting on really well, after a few beers here everyone went back to the hostel around 11pm where we started to play some alcohol related card games which went on until about 1am, I done well out of it considering I didn't have any alcohol with me to participate with! One of the guys had just had too much to drink however and was feeling really rough, and ended up throwing up on his bed....nice! It was a thoroughly enjoyable night in Westport however as everyone was getting on with each other which made it all such a good laugh especially as there was loads of alcohol involved to get us on our way!
I went to bed after the card games had finished and saw the Canadian pair snuggled up in the double bed as I walked past to get to my bunk bed :P
Love Toby xxx
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