This morning I still had some more walks to do around the lake area so after a couple of hours there I headed off to Murchison, the site of a large earthquake in 1929, as well as the location of the longest swing bridge in NZ(110m), which is where I was ultimately headed.
Buller Gorge is where the swing bridge is which you can walk across (obviously) then you can either walk back, swing back in a seat across the gorge or swing back in a body harness after taking a running leap into mid-air, just like superwoman.
So I had thought about the options before I got there of course and had come up with the plan to walk across and swing back on the seat. Now, somehow after just 10 seconds of arriving at the ticket desk I was signed up for coming back across this ridiculously huge gorge as superwoman! I’m curious as to what it is about me that I seem to keep getting into these kinds of situations! Do I have a look about me that says I’m game for the ridiculous, do I have a look about me that says I’m gullible or do I just have a look about me that says I’d like to be parted from more of my money than I was intending?? I suspect, to be honest, it’s a bit of a mixture of the three although I would hate to hazard a guess as to which one is the stronger trait!
The swing bridge
It was great fun though; the family operating the attraction were equally as interesting characters, the guy strapping me in to the harness so dry and deadpan when I was asking him about their safety record (!) I almost believed him. Actually perhaps it’s the gullible part they all see in me huh?!
This was also my first experience of sandflies, I had been warned about them from dad, from friends and from other travellers but this was the first experience of them that I had had and I totally agree with everyone, they really are the makings of the devil! Really horrible little things and really painful if they get you, the trick, I guess, is to make sure they don’t get you. I wonder how many cans of repellent I can get through? And the impact on the environment? Mmmm........!
Following my very unfortunate sandfly experience I headed off to Westport and then finally to Punakaiki (Pancake rocks) for the night.
Now I know it was Sunday, but Westport was totally dead, not a soul in sight. I still needed to book a bed for the night so was looking for a phone, now call me lazy but I ideally wanted a phone on the side of the road I was travelling on but would you believe there must have been at least 15 phones on the other side of the main street and none on my side then at the very very end of the road and the town was a phone on my side, where I managed to book a bed at the Te Nikau Retreat just north of Pancake rocks.
Before I got to my bed for the night I visited the Tauranga seal colony 16km from Westport, there were a few seals but nothing like I had seen at Kaikoura, maybe it wasn’t the season here or maybe it was too cold for them, after all the colony was right near Cape Foulwind! A giveaway in the name perhaps? The wind was pretty foul but the scenery was gorgeous.
The seal colony at Tauranga
The Te Nikau Retreat, my bed for the night, was just how it sounds, it was the most fantastic place ever and by far the most fantastic place I’ve stayed at so far. There’s a little sign on the main road which you follow down a very narrow country lane until you come across the lodge house and reception. It was getting pretty late and I was getting tired so when I booked in at reception and the guy directed me down a tiny walkway that was heading off into the bush I didn’t question it, that was not until I actually started heading off into the bush and then I only questioned myself!
Down this little path in the middle of the west coast rainforest was the most delightful little shack type building I’ve seen, hidden from view almost by the forest. As I came up to it I could see there was a kind of greenhouse attached to the side of it that appeared to be a kitchen with a couple of people sitting in it, before I introduced myself though I took a look at the sleeping area. When I’m away I always stay in dorms but this was something else, this place
was really lovely. I walked into the main room which had 5 beds in it then there were steps going up to another level where there were two more beds, I chose my bed and then went to introduce myself. By the time I got into the kitchen there were 4 people there with another person in the toilet, all from Germ
any, 4 together and one guy on his own, so we all introduced ourselves and then marvelled at the delightfulness of it all. After a couple of drinks and a bite to eat we had another house mate join us, a guy from Israel, Steven, who then spent 5 mins marvelling at the wonder of it all. I did wonder if everyone who arriv
es at this place does exactly the same, and like us never wants to leave, I guess that’s how it got the name, the retreat. We had a great evening together chatting and eating chocolate pancakes before hitting the sack quite late.
I also had my first encounter of the Weka at the retreat, the weka is a little ‘Kiwikinda’ bird, flightless the same just not as endangered for some reason, but very inquisitive, very cute and generally pretty tame. Here is a pic of a very wet and extremely inquisitive one, I think he was after my camera or my Tevas perhaps!
A cute weka
No comments:
Post a Comment