West coast hitch hikers

Waking up and being able to put clean clothes on was lovely. We were slightly lazy and slowly had breakfast and packed up, meaning we didn't leave the hostel until 10am. Matt needed to post a parcel so we spent time doing that and finally set off towards the west coast. It took us a couple of hours to drive through the Motueka valley towards Buller. We stopped at a couple of lookouts which were nice but they didn't photograph well. By the time we reached Buller river we decided to stop for some lunch by a little church. It was rather picturesque and we enjoyed our sandwiches looking out over the river. 

After lunch we moved on as we wanted to check out Buller gorge. I'd read in our guide book that there was a fee to cross the swing bridge (the longest swing bridge in New Zealand) but I was slightly shocked when it turned out to be $10 each. However, we wanted to see it and when changing into pounds it's only about £4. The bridge was rather long and a little scary. Looking down onto the fast flowing water and rocks was daunting, especially since there was nothing supporting the bridge from below. Over the bridge was a little short walk through the bush and along the river. There had been an earthquake here many years before and some points marked out fault lines and showed how the river had changed. 

Next up on the road trip was Westport, supposedly a bit of a dull town but it's the place Matt's auntie and uncle used to live therefore we didn't want to miss it out. Westport was pretty big compared to most places in New Zealand, with two supermarkets and even a hospital (which is where Matt's auntie used to live). After driving through the town we went by the hospital and Matt actually went inside to see if anyone remembered his auntie. Unfortunately, as she hasn't lived here for fifteen years, there wasn't anyone in today that had worked there long enough. They were ever so friendly though and suggested that Matt return tomorrow as there would be people in that had been working in the hospital for longer than fifteen years. The people in New Zealand are super nice. 

We decided to buy our tea from the supermarket and fill up on fuel before driving down the west coast. As there wasn't anything to do in Westport we chose to move on but I think Matt was a little disappointed. I reckon he would have liked to spend hours walking round the town, trying to guess what house his family lived in and so on. When we reached the turn off for the start of the coast road (supposedly one of the best drives in the world) I spotted a couple of hitch hikers and so stopped to pick them up. Turned out they wanted to get to Punakaiki which is where we were thinking of going. They also both worked in a hostel there which I'd read about in the guide book (therefore I knew it was good). There was a German guy and a Spanish guy, both very friendly although could have done with a shower and some deodorant. They chatted to us along the way and even advised us when to stop at view points. The final stop (before the hostel) was a little 10 minute walk through trees to a cliff over looking the sea. As it was such a beautifully clear day we could actually see over towards mount Cook. The coastal road had been pretty stunning but it didn't beat the Tongariro national park drive. The gradual setting sun did help to bring it close though. 

We arrived at the lovely hostel by the sea and made our tea of lamb sausages (a little odd) with sweet potato (we still had some left from last night) and onion gravy. We decided to oven cook it which took a while but it tasted pretty good in the end. After tea we sat and listened to an episode of our detective show (we're not very cool) as there wasn't anything to see at night in this tiny village.