Friday 22
Woke at last to a beautiful sunny morning- still chilly, especially in the shower block…after stopping off at 'Kathmandu'- our fave outdoorsy shop, to stock up on children's fleeces (only brought 1 sweatshirt each- now extremely dirty!)- and sleeping bag liners (we have been advised there is a 'cold snap' coming,) we travelled from Mapua to Westport, a lot of driving on windy roads. From Murchison we followed the path of the mighty Buller River. After our lunch stop at the Rivers Café in Murchison we found the Buller Gorge Swingbridge, the 'longest swingbridge in New Zealand' at 110 m long and 17m high above the raging Buller River! Quite a big incentive to get to the other side though as there was a lovely walk ; the family experienced varying degrees of trepidation as we crossed- M and O surprisingly most confident, S and R opting for the easy option of returning by the flying fox comet line…I managed to get myself talked into a jet boat ride up the Upper Buller Gorge. What an amazing ride it was. A small boat but very powerful, just 6 of us on it in total, including the driver Mark, the nicest guy we'ver met in NZ yet (and that's saying something). The ride on a jet boat involves immense accelerationa and deceleration, lots of swooshing around, driving headlong towards cliff faces, and changing direction at the last minute, 'handbrake turns' –ugh, but most importantly views of outstanding scenery that you wouldn't otherwise be a able to see. This was my ONLY attempt at extreme sports! We went 14k downstream at speeds of up to 50 mph, then turned and went upstream to the powerful Ariki Falls. The boat needs only 4" of water to drive in, so a lot of the trip was in white water and very bumpy. We all LOVED it. Mark let me out for the last 5 minutes so I could take some video of the last couple of spins.
It was then only an hour to Westport, not a great town but the site is lovely. We're in a cabin tonight, very welcome. Comfy bed aaaah. We were attacked by sandfles on the river and making good use of the 'Scratchy and Itchy' ointment that Sally recommended. (Spare one in my luggage for you Sal.)