Lake Mahinapua

After a very chilled out evening in Westport, Mangee told us that today would be action packed, and would finish off in a full fiesta! The next location was Lake Mahinapua. Mangee told us that there was small pub in the middle of nowhere that was family owned. Many years ago, the man that owned the pub saw the Kiwi Experiences buses going through, and made it his mission to make his pub a stop on their journey. After a while of trying, he finally succeeded, and it is now a stay over stop en route. Although you have to spend more to stay here (about $50 compared to $30 stops) your food is supplied and you are guaranteed a good time. Unfortunately the guy who made it all possible passed away a few years ago, but his family still live on the tradition of hosting parties at the pub EVERY night for kiwi experiences.

At each party, there is a dress up requirement, and Mangee told us that ours would be 'ABC'- Anything But Clothes. 

The group before us who had been the night before had the theme 'National Treasures', and they followed up with a hilarious picture of them dressed up as American Cow Boys, Vikings and the Spice Girls (complete with Sam black-facing as a VERY Scary Spice).

We knew we had to pull something good out of the bag now!

But before all of this, we had a busy day of stops ahead, the first one being a Cape Foulwind (lol) for a very blustery walk along the coast. We were feeling really sniffly from our jump at Nelson's Lake, but Mangee forced us off the bus, and told us it would be well worth it for the seal colony at the end! With this promise, we all got off and started the hour long walk. It was really windy, and very cold, but we all chatted and walked along.

Lo and behold at the end we were met with a large seal colony, and we stood and watched the pups fighting, the adults go diving into the sea, and some mothers trying to move away from their needy pups.

Once we had finished spying on the seals, we walked round the corner to find Mangee there waiting with the bus, along with a woman selling hot chocolates. After the walk, it was just what we needed!

We got on the bus, and the next stop was the Pancake rocks!

After another drive, we arrived at the pancake rocks and blow holes, where we saw how the sea had carved out some really interesting shapes into the landscape.

Pancake rocks

As you can guess, the pancake rocks are called this as the geology resemble huge stacks of Pancakes, which we had all suddenly got a real craving for. There were also natural blow holes that would spurt out water when the large waves came in, which was pretty frequent as it was quite rough that day!

After the rocks, we found a little shop selling New Zealand's famous Manuka honey. They were giving out free taster samples so we took the opportunity to try some so we could shake the colds in time for tonight's party!

After the coast, we started heading to a town for lunch. Mangee allowed for a costume stop, or more like a DIY stop so we could gather materials to make costumes. Amy, Iqra, Izzy, along with us and Mark found some different coloured party hats and decided to go as crayons. The others decided to go as unicorns but we were in competition amongst us to have better costumes, so we kept our ideas all top secret.

The next stop was to be an exciting one. On our way to Lake Mahinapua we passed the Monteiths beer and cider brewery, so we were able to stop and have a tour of the brewery. The tour cost $20, and at the end you were able to try three of their beers of your choice, as well as getting two beer vouchers that could be used at the hotel we were staying at that evening.

The actual tour was pretty rubbish as the brewery was very small, and the tour guide seemed to point out the obvious a lot of the time, however the beer testing at the end was great fun!
We tried the raspberry beer, which was a bit different, the cider which is a favourite of ours to this day, and also the radler beer which is delicious! A nice final touch from the brewery was that we got given the pale ale in a special Kiwi experience bottle, and it also had a lovely little sentiment and Mangee's name on the back so we could remember he was the one who took us there.

After a few beers at the brewery, we were finally feeling in a bit more of a party mood. We were finally on our way to the Lake Mahinapua.
As we pulled up to the pub, Mangee said that we should go down and actually have a look at the lake before it got dark. He also said he had a confession. He said he had withheld some vital information from us that he was about to reveal. We held our breaths as he he told us that the pub's pet pig had recently given birth to some tiny piglets, and they had just bought a new puppy, and kitten!
 The whole bus erupted with excitement, and Steph looked like she was going to cry after her heartbreak at not being able to cuddle the kittens at River Valley.

It's safe to say no one went to go and see the lake.

You have never seen so many adults/teenagers push past each other and fight over animals. Pretty much everyone made a bee line for the puppy, whilst Steph darted for that kitten.

Happiest girl. Ever.

We had a quick welcome talk from the owners who told us to make ourselves at home, find our little cabins in the garden, and to go and have a try at cutting the precious stone Jet in the workshop they had out back.

It was like watching children in a toy shop. There was too much to do. Archie had a go at cutting the Jade, and everyone else swapped pets. Tom and Steph made sure they went out and had a little laugh at the piglets too!

Puppy got too excited!

After the initial excitement wore off, and the animals became sleepy, we all sat and had a few drinks before our dinner.

Iqra and Mangee, our awesome driver!

Steph sat and drank her beers with the kitten firmly asleep in her coat for a good hour.

Next came the next perk to the pub stop. The full roast pork dinner, with all the trimmings, (there could have been more piglets the week before!!!) . After having to survive on cheap pasta and noodles, this was the perfect meal, and especially great for us feeling a bit under the weather. We were absolutely stuffed afterwards, which they probably do on purpose so no one gets too drunk later on in the evening!

Next we had to separate to prepare our costumes: Unicorns into one room, and crayons into the other. We also had Dan come to prepare in our room who covered himself completely in blue acrylic paint! He whacked on a red hat, and crafted a loin cloth out of a scarf to become papa smurf, and went on his merry way to the party.

Our costumes were going to take time though as we had to staple and tape ourselves into bin bags covered with our allocated colour. 

By the time we finished, the party was well underway, but we made our entrance, and we all agreed we looked pretty good altogether.

We met up with Archie, Annie, Charlotte and John to see their unicorn costumes.

We had knights in shining (foil) armour, bin bag penguins and Mangee came in a Winnie the Pooh onesie! We had a group picture before we partied which they put on the Facebook page which you should go and check out to see all the other great costumes they have had over the times!

We used our remaining drinks vouchers from the Monteith's brewery tour to get drinks, and then we danced the night away whilst trying to keep our costumes all in one piece! (toilet stops were fatal) The evening was another fairly messy one, but we all had a really good time.

You can see people took the "Anything but clothes" quite literally!

The next morning, we all felt a bit ropey. Our costumes were pretty much gone, and there were a few pieces of coloured paper all over the bathrooms. The only costume that was still very much in tact was Dan's, who, despite his best efforts, still had patches of blue skin on his back.

Once again the Hotel cooked up a storm and gave us an amazing pancake breakfast (perfect as the pancake craving from pancake rocks was still on our minds). We said our last goodbyes to the puppy and the kitten, and Steph's bag was searched again before we left to make sure the kitten was still very much at Mahinapua. We said our goodbyes to the lovely staff who made our stay so enjoyable, and got on the road again to Franz Josef.

And no, we never did see the actual lake.