Day 15 - Nelson to Greymouth - Meals, Seals and a Piss-up in a Brewery

Greymouth was one of the places on my journey I was least looking forward to. I had been there previously a few years back, and thankfully I was only there for a few hours, because the only way I can describe it is Grey. On the bus that morning I met Noirin and Anette, two primary school teacher from Ireland (don't ask me which part). We got chatting and decided to stroll around the Nelson market (our fist stop) together. I bought nothing more than some licorice (it was good stuff, too). Back on the bus and we chilled out and chatted on the way to Westport, where we stopped at the seal colony. I was a nice spot, with some long drop toilets (I was used to them by that stage) and seals weren't the only wildlife. I also manged to get some shot of wekas, which resemble almost a brown hen, but thy have a funny shaped beak. After some long distance shots of seals, we moved on and stopped at another place further down, with a walk through forest to a hidden cove. He walked down and enjoyed the view before we noticed a lone seal on the beach. It was quite cute, but we didn't get too close. The next stop on the trip was Punakaikai, home to the pancake rocks. These strange geological features made for some nice photos. I also got an ice-cream. A short while after, and with the ice-cream long gone, we arrived at our destination, Greymouth. It was still as grey as I remembered, and the weather, which had been good most of the day, changed. We had all booked the Montieth's brewery tour, and I got dropped off at my hostel and got changed before the bus arrived. The tour also included dinner. We arrived at the brewery and were given ample time to enjoy the delights of the gift shop before the rest of the group arrived. We the took a short tour, where most of us learned very little, and went on to the brewery bar for the tasting (you didn't honestly think we actually wanted to know how beer's made, did you?). We sampled about 8 or 9 beers and a cider before being allowed to pour a pint of our choosing. After that,we were all a bit tipsy (we hadn't eaten yet), and my camera has a few candid shots of our antics with a mounted moose's head. After that, the minibus that took us to the brewery returned and shipped us off to the Railway inn, for a lovely barbecue style dinner. The steak was to die for. We also had some quite cheap jugs of beer, which stayed quite cheap until 12pm, when the bar obviously decided to try and slow us down. We weren't having any of it, because we'd been told before that they were cheap all night, and eventually we decided not to put up with the manageress' bad attitude, and we left en masse. It was raining when we left, of course, but we made it home safely, with me and Anette trying in vain to have a conversation in German, for some strange reason. After arriving at the YHA, I headed straight for bed.

Day 1 - Napier to Mt. Mangonui - Changed plans and new friends.

Day one of my big trip, which also happened to be boxing day, was hectic. I was also the day my Aunt and Uncle were going off to Oz for a month with my cousin Aaron. We had to get the christmas decorations away, pack lunch and get all our bags together ready to go in an hour, befor my other Aunt turned up to take them to the Airport, and me to the bus stop. we got the the airport early, and I waved my aunt and uncle off before we turned and headed off to the bus stop. The bus didn't take long to arrive, and I said goodbye to my Aunt and cousin before embarking. I headed to the back of the bus, where I got talking to a couple of guys, named Al and Jo. The first stop of the day was a lookout over a bautiful watefall in the valley below. We then headed over to Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland. Although I had been there before, there wasn't much elso to do there, so I decided to head in. It was onlt $25, anyway. I walked round with al and Jo, and we saw some really great geothermal features, such as the champagne pools, which were red, devil's hole, which was bright lime green, and the blue lake, which was (can't you guess) bright blue. After Wai-O-Tapu we headed into Taupo and Rotorua for a quick stop to pick up and drop off passengers, before heading out to the Zorb site. I had been zorbing before, and although no-one else wanted to go, Rangi, the driver had to drop us off there so that he could go and fill up the bus with diesel. al, Jo and myself decided not to go zorbing, and we jumped into the neighbouring field and played a game of hacky sack, which is surprisingly more difficult than you would expect. When the bus returned, we all embarked agin to head towards Tauranga and mt Mangonui. i was supposed to be staying in Tauranga, and I would hve been if Rangi hadn't told us all how great Mt Mangonui was at this time of year. I manged to cancel my reservation at YHA Tauranga without penalty, and I manged to get a room at the Pacific Coast Backpackers in the mount. When we arrived, Jo had to go to another hostel, and we all agreed to meet up to go to the beach to bodysurf. It was great fun, and the sea was brilliant for it, with the occasional huge waves coming over to wipe us out. after a good few hours of swimming we all headed back to our hostels, and Al and I agreed to go halves on dinner, so we headed up to the supermarket. We had Sausages with chicken and tomato pasta. We then just chilled around the hostel, and I watched Armageddon in the TV lounge before heading to bed for an early start the next morning.