Lake Mahinapua / The Poo pub

The Kiwi Experience map and booklet states that this place is called Lake Mahinapua and it speaks about the area and the local wildlife, touching on only briefly about the owner and the true activities they have planned here, which is usually then the things they most concentrate on when you arrive and expect something such as a walk around a lake and possibly a hostel that concentrates on the wildlife or the local Green stone. So you are not quite ready to leave Westport to find that you have stepped back into uni life and it's fancy dress time, Kane tells us that the theme will be “Tight & Bright”, a theme which I am extremely familiar with from my life in Snowsports and that all the rules are:

No cotton wool and no body paint....there goes one of my ideas.

We are dropped in Greymouth, the chief commercial centre of the west coast but still on a Sunday afternoon there are only a few shops open, but with years of training it didn't take too long to find some inappropriate garments that could be worn. A quick drive further down this remarkable coastline and we arrive at the accommodation known as pu pub,  we are met by Les the 87 year old man that runs the place before heading to our room for some fancy dress making time.

I think we ended up most proud of our room mate that spent the first few hours endlessly blowing up a balloon to try and get a head torch in it to finally give up and almost struggle through dinner due to lack of oxygen. With everyone finally ready and with outfits fully coloured in it was time to head to the bar for a night of free beer for doing the washing up and Kane's drinking game, rather simple but completely lethal; six shots, 1 dice if you roll the same number twice you are out, if you roll all six numbers with no repeats you win and Kane buys them all.

Only Lucy won the game but we all had a fair go at the shots. 10.30 arrives and we all have to pose for countless photos so that everyone's camera can have the same photo of the group, overall it was a great night.

Up early and a jog down to the lake to see what we had missed while we were making fancy dress, a small lane led down through the woods to a quiet opening where a few people camped overlooking the lake. Lake Mahinapua large and after putting my feet in also cold, surrounded by trees with the southern alps visible behind.