Nelson Lakes and Westport

From Kaiteriteri, we made our way to Westport our next stop for the night. We got to know Mangee the driver over the intercom and we loved him more and more each time he spoke. He was so passionate about his job and his country and genuinely wanted us all to have the best trip. He took the time to pull over the bus and let everyone out to take pictures of silly things like kiwi crossing road signs, and actively encouraged creative posing.

sicky little iq-icky

The next stop he once again encouraged us to make the most out of, as it was an amazing photo opportunity, but this was one creative pose he wasn't going to convince everyone on. The Nelson Lakes were a beautiful isolated location that was the picture of tranquility and New Zealand.

 Although the lake itself was beautiful, Mangee said the best pictures were the ones of people jumping in.

As it was freezing cold WITH clothes on, he lost a majority of the buses support on this one.

Ourselves along with Amy decided that we would only have one opportunity for this legendary photo, that we should literally dive right in and do it. We wouldn't be in the Lake alone though, there were some scary and vicious looking eels on the side of the pier, along with a pretty duck that Archie claimed was the most majestic thing he'd ever seen.

Still undeterred though, we decided to take the leap of faith and jump in.

Feeling brave, we posed for some pictures before turning around and taking a run up. 

Steph slipped on some residual water from previous jumps so she was a split second behind the other two, but it is still safe to say we made a pretty cool picture.

The water. was. Freezing, and as you can tell from the expressions on our faces, we were quick to try and get out.

We got out and dried ourselves in the communal toilet block across the car park, and got warmed up for a group photo

Wise John, Dan, Charlotte, Annie, Archie Mark
Tom, Amy, Iqra, Steph and Izzy

That afternoon we got to Bazils hostel in Westport, and managed to wangle the 12 bed dorm for our group which was nice! Some people went to a boxercise class but we decided to go to the shops and buy the burrito supplies for dinner later. The hostel was really laid back, and had cool art work in and around the buildings.

Westport itself is a really cool surf location and a stop often favored by travelers, but due to the cold weather, it was a place we would have one fleeting night with. That evening we got the log fire in our room going, cooked a big mexican feast and finished off the evening watching ,Men in Black on VHS (old school)

Everyone was having a chilled evening, apart from Archie who decided to drink his body weight in wine, and as per usual things got silly and Archie cracked us up with bitchy comments and 

a slideshow of his cat, Mr Pickle.

The next morning we woke up feeling rough. Archie mainly from wine related illness, (but he swears it was the log burner dehydrating him in his sleep) but we had finally caught the bus cold that was going round, and jumping in the freezing lake the day before probably brought it along!

We had to shake off the illness and get going that morning, because that evening we were due to parrrrrrrttyyyy.