Day 23: Lake Mahinapua, I'm Gandalf, Poo Pub, and swimming again

Monday 28th December

Lemon scented trash bag Gandalf visits the Poo Pub

Distance: bus, 151km

Total Distance: 3866km

Our first trip today was to the Pancake Rocks and Blowhole, a formation of limestone on the coast which has a strongly striated pattern horizontally, and is also being eroded to create blowholes. These are much more impressive at high tide, but we were there half way to low tide, still good to see though.

We then stopped in Greymouth for bin bags. Why? Because we were off to a party at the Poo Pub? Where? It's a pub once owned by an old man who loved having KE to stay, but died a few years ago. The pub was bought by the founder of KE, revamped, and is now where everyone goes for a party. Out near a beautiful, if brown, Lake Mahinapua, where we would go for a quick swim with photos taken by Flea, missing the few eels present.

The bin bags were for the party. That was the theme, so we all made costumes out of plastic bags and tape. 

I was to be Gandalf the Grey, with grey, lemon scented bags for robes, a white bag for beard, a random Mexican sombrero covered in grey bags for hat, a drift wood staff, and my inflatable camping lantern at the tip of the staff. It wasn't going to win fashion awards, and Weta Workshop would never be proud, but in the pub it worked really well. Everyone guessed who I was straight away and raved about the light on the end of my staff.

We had a great party that carried on until the early hours. I gave up the beard, hat, and staff after a few hours as I sweated through the evening. Yet as people began to leave I went to find it again. Between the pub and the lake is a side trail that takes 30 minutes instead of the 8 minute route straight to the lake. With the lantern on my staff I decided to have a quick evening stroll through the forest. It's a much different place in black and white when all you can see are the plants either side of the track. 

Eventually I reached the lake, turned round, and took the 8 minute track back to the hostel. Here the light was switched off. In the undergrowth next to the road were multiple tiny points of glowing light. Glow worms! Like the ones I had seen in the caves on the North Island, but living in the bush. They were present all the way along the track, like the lights along an aeroplane's aisles. It was bizarre, quaint, and beautiful.