This morning we took the 380km drive down the coast to Wanaka, which winds along the coast and then inland between two huge lakes and mountain ranges... wonderful driving roads once again! On the way into Haast, where we stopped for lunch, we stopped off to check out the coastal views at Knights Point, which was nice even in the overcast conditions, and then at Ship Creek, where Chris was told by someone he met in the last town we could see dolphins playing in the surf from the beach. We took a stroll down to the beach, in the wind and rain that had come in by now, and braving the thousands of bloody sandflies, and did get to see this wonderful sight of Hectors Dolphins playing in the swell and surf right next to the beach, jumping clear out of the water too! It was really nice to see some at last, especially after having the dolphin swim trips cancelled over and over. There was a pretty large group and they looked brill! I managed to get lucky with a shot of one completely clear of the water too, sweet! We didn't hang around too long though, cos the flies were REALLY bad...
Further down the road, near a town called Makarora, we stopped off for a short forest walk, including a swing bridge over the river to see the blue pools, which were stunning! We simply had to distrub the waters though, as they were perfect for throwing 'skimmers' and the pebbles along side the river were the perfect shape! Chris then had the great idea of throwing the bigger pebbles high into the air from the raised steps near the bank into the water, which made a nice satisfying kerplooosh as they dropped into the river. Kids eh! Lol ;-p
Tonight was the Super 14's final, between the Crusaders (a Kiwi team) and the Waratahs (an Aussie team), so we found somewhere to eat with plenty of time, before settling into a great pub with open log fire and big screen TV's for the game, who also insisted on giving us 'free gifts' when we went to the bar. The game was a perfect showcase of top class rugby union, just as it should be for the Super 14's final! It was totally breathless with barely any time for replays throughout the whole match! The pub atmosphere was great too, with Aussies a plenty in the house and of course lots of Kiwis. We sank too many beers whilst enjoying this, and then went on to play pool for hours and hours, sinking more and more beers! We played doubles against a couple of giant farmers, who were seriously bladdered to the point of not being able to understand what one of them was saying at all! We thrashed them four games to nil and then played each other for a while before more lambs came to the slaughter in the form of two younger Kiwi lads. We then went on to a different pub with a few people from this place, for a few late drinks, ending up going back to the camp site about 3am! I then logged in to the interent from the site for some reason, and had a good waffle with my mate Rob at home which was cool. I seem to recall sending some drunken texts to people at home too, must stop doing that... lol! :-/
The next day was a complete right off, with the walk we planned going out of the window, and the reply on text I got from Chris simply stating that today was postponed! Lol! I couldn't have agreed more... ;-)
Pics from the drive and the stop off along the coast and the lakes are on facebook, check em out mind! (Sign in to see my descriptions with the photos)
Chuuuuuurs!
