Nelson to Westport

It is kind of lonely traveling without Jas, she was still suffering from vomiting from all the motion sickness. Luckily now she had fully recovered. Today's itinerary began with heading to Richmond for food supplies if you required, then stopping at Nelson Lakes National Park for lunch. After which, the journey continued on to Westport, stopping at the Buller Adventure Tour at the Buller Gorge if you were doing any activities such as jet-boating, quad biking or horse riding.

At Nelson National Park, you will get the stunning view of Lake Rotoiti accompanied by snow capped mountains and beech forest. I found the scenery was nicer in real life than the photos I took, maybe it got something to do with the photographer. Hmmm... Well, you could go for the bush walk, laze around the lake or if you are brave enough jump into the freezing cold water of Lake Rotoiti and, there are always some brave souls on the bus that chose to jump into the water.

The Maori name for the Buller River is 'Kawatiri' which means 'swift and deep' and it is here that I had my jet-boating experience. It was an one hour 25 mins trip through the sub tropical forest of the Lower Buller gorge with informative description of the jetboat and the Gorge. On the ride, you get to skim the shallows, play in the pressure waves and do some amazing jetspins. I felt that jet-boating was not very exciting, maybe because I were sitting on the front row, hence the impact or effect of the sharp turning was not there.

It is here at Westport that I got to know my traveling buddies, Bonnie and Lister from Taiwan, all the way to Queenstown. It was rather awkward of how we got to know one another. As I went for jet-boating, I was check in into the hostel a lot later than those that did not do any activities. When I got into the room (it is a 3 beds bunk), all the beds seems to be occupied – they were each sitting on one bed and one bed was full of stuffs. I got to ask which bed was mine and seeing that they are a couple and not wanting to disturb them, hence I tried my best not to stay in room until it was time to go to bed.