On to Westport

Trip Start Mar 10, 2010

Trip End May 22, 2010

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Where I stayed

Bazil's

Flag of New Zealand Westport, South Island, New Zealand
Sunday, April 11, 2010

Again, it was an early start to travel the distance to Westport. We made an initial stop by Lake Rotoiti. This was the first of New Zealand's many lakes that I have seen. The view over the lake and the background scenery was just incredible. We went for a quick walk through the bush for a stretch of the legs before getting back onto the coach.

The next stop, for some people including me was Buller Adventures. This is a small family run company about 10 minutes from where we were staying which specialise in outdoor activities. They do horse-trekking, quadbiking and the activity I did, jet boating. This kind of boat draws in water and shoots it out the back, without the need to a big motor at the back. This means it can go very fast over very shallow water.

This was a brilliant experience at a price that was definitely better than in Australia

Lake Rotoiti

. For the same price in Sydney, they offered a 20 minute ride around the harbour. But on the Buller river, the same price got me an hour and a quarter on an incredible river with amazing scenery. Deal.

We saw a recent wrecked car which had an interesting story to it. Apparently the driver swerved to miss a deer before rolling around 10 times down the cliff face and into the river. The front screen was blocked by the bonnet, so the driver couldn't escape. He couldn't break the windows and was stuck. He then started drowing as he opened the windows, before luckily managed to escape.

Anyway, the jet boating was so good. Travelling very fast over 30 cm deep water at places, also doing 360 degree spins and getting soaked. Brilliant

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