Jet Boating

After leaving sunny Nelson we headed inland across to the west coast and the town of Westport. On the way we passed through the Nelson Lakes National Park and stopped off for a bit of lunch at the beautiful Lake Rotoiti. The only thing to spoil the whole experience was the first meeting with the lovely NZ sandflies. They are like a mix of fruit flies with mosquitoes! Nasty little b'stards...

Lake Rotoiti

From the lake we headed through some amazing countryside and on to Buller Gorge. Not suprising when this stretch of road is ranked in the top ten best drives in the world!!

Once in the gorge its time for some jet boating again. After being kitted out with all the gear, waterproofs, goggles, buoyancy aids etc we headed out for the boat with our driver Kane. It has to be said, it was really good fun but not as enjoyable as it was in Sydney for my B'day. The driver in Sydney was a little bit more mental, there were bigger waves, we got soaked and it was much longer. When both groups had gone out in the boats it was time to head into Westport our destination for the night.

Florian and me ready for action!

Despite the beautiful surroundings Westport could only be described as a "hole!". It is pretty small and consisted of one street, large playing fields and a supermarket. Despite my previous comments it took us 15/20 mins to find the said supermarket as we turned left on the one street instead of right!! Ooops.. After a fairly average pasta meal washed down with a few stubbies it was time for bed. Not much else to do!! Lake Mahinapua here we come...

Westport, New Zealand