Murchison to Karamea

30th March
Murchison school was a small and very calm affair - not at all like an English school. We were visiting year 6, 20 or so kids who were all very keen, very polite and not one that fidgeted or tried to make clever comments. The school is both primary and secondary as the population here isn't huge, we didn't hear any shouting or rudeness, everybody seemed to want to learn - bliss!
Year 6 have been learning about American Indians and Brent Winters (our campsite host) was going in to tell them about the American Indian tribes and history that he knew about from his time living in the States and Canada. They brought us along so that the kids could meet a 'real' Indian - Celso - and ask him some questions about his childhood. We spent about 90 mins with them, our time finishing with all the class going outside to shoot a bow and arrow at a Buffalo!! Tris managed to get him in the foot, Celso in the leg and I completely missed!
On our way back to the campsite we found out that Brent and Lynn used to live just near Rob and Alice Dupont (my uncle and aunt that we will be staying with in a couple of weeks) over in Timaru and knew them quite well - what a small world!
We moved West down the Buller river Gorge about 15km to a place where there is a swing bridge across the river and a couple of 'activities' (like jet boating) and walks. We went for a bush walk, crossed the bridge (it wasn't as bad as I was expecting as the floor was a solid metal gridwork that didn't bow at all as you walked across it) and then for a short while followed the path of a fault line caused in a 1929 earthquake. A gap had opened up about 1.5 m wide and dropping at least 4m below the old ground level. On the other side of the river a creek now flows in the fault line and then tumbles into the Buller river as a small waterfall. This site was a gold rush centre in 1929 and a few people were killed in land slips, the area shows this past with several old pipes and heaps of tailings in the bush. More recently the land has been farmed and we found several old rusting vehicles on the site. As we returned Celso decided he didn't want to cross the bridge again so instead he did a superman impression and flew over the gorge (see photos)!
Further west we crossed over a tall single lane bridge over the gorge and had to turn back so that we could go and explore the big bend in the river below the bridge. Celso got out his fishing line and I tried my hand at panning for gold but the sandflies got the better of us and we returned to the van to eat sandwiches! Then further west along the river with fantastic views up and down the gorge until we reached the Tasman sea on the west coast at Westport. After another unsuccesful attempt to find a tyre rim we did some shopping and then found a campsite. The campground was full of Wekas (a ground dwelling bird a bit like a Kiwi but with a shorter beak and a stumpy little upturned tail), one pair under a bush had a big, black fluffy chick. They were very brave, chicken like birds; later we were told that they are very cheeky and will steal things that are left on the ground.

31st March
From Westport we drove north up the coast to Karamea at the end of the road. We stopped on the way to watch Hector's dolphins in the sea below and then wound our way around and through patches of pristine bush and farmland until we reached the tiny town at the end of the road. We have booked a guide to take us into some caves tomorrow and then we parked up near a tidal lake about 100m back from the beach. We walked along the deserted, sandy beach with not a piece of litter in sight, the sea was very cold and quite rough and did not tempt us in even though the sun was hot; instead we took shelter in a little shelter that someone had made out of driftwood and watched the waves crashing in. We returned by way of the lake which is full of black swans, long legged peterel type birds, ducks, herons, seagulls and shoals of fish. Having seen the fish Celso was keen to try his luck so when we returned to the van he set out again with his fishing rod, met up with another chap who knew where to go and then returned about 2 hours later with 5 large fish - Kawhai. We gave 3 to a woman who was in another camper van and then got chatting to her. She is called Moyra (the y is because when she had her name registered as a child that is how the registrar wrote it!), she is in her 60's and she has just started 'chopping'; that means she enters wood cutting competitions. She stands atop a large log and swings the axe at the wood between her feet; all competitors wear chain mail socks - just in case! She took up the sport because she was tired of watching her husband do it and wanted to give it a go herself!!! She was an interesting lady - but she kept on using NZ slang that had to be translated - so it was quite a drawn out conversation!
We were going to free camp by the beach but Celso decided that he was too fishy and wanted a good hot shower (the one in the van is a bit pathetic) so we had to leave and go to the campsite in town at the cricket ground. We had a good supper of fresh, fried fish and a long hot shower.