Despite feeling pretty worn out after our trek and partying, we were all up and out early and ready to start our descent down the 'wild' West Coast. First, we headed through the Buller Gorge, which stretches for over 600 kilometres. This strip of road was recently rated as one of the top ten drives in the world by Lonely Planet: it was very pretty but I'm not sure it warrants being in the top 10 in the world?! The Buller River's Maori name 'Kawatiri' meaning 'swift and deep' gives an idea of what an obstacle it used to be. It used to take travellers up to seven weeks to get through the gorge (the only way to cross the river was by boat until 1890) but, thankfully, it only took us a few minutes! As we crossed the Buller River, Seagull was quick to inform us of the one way bridge systems they have here. The one way bridges had to be brought in because the water level on the rivers can get so high that they can flood the bridges, therefore if they get damaged they are smaller and cheaper to replace. This seemed ridiculous as the water was nowhere near the bridge but Seagull assured us it rises a lot when it really starts raining. 
 
We stopped along the way for photos including at Hawks Crag, which is a pretty impressive bend in the gorge and a single lane piece of road which is actually cut into the rock, before heading on to Punakaiki in Paparoa National Park which is 30,000ha of rainforest, cliffs and caves and is famous for its 'Pancake Rocks': soft and hard layers of rock, which have been eroded by the sea to leave formations, making them look like stacks of pancakes . The sea still roars through the formations creating huge blowholes. We followed a short walk around here and took lots of photos of the stacks of 'pancakes' but unfortunately the sea was too calm to make the blowholes blow!
 
The West Coast was certainly a different cultural experience for us! The major influx of settlers arrived between 1864 and 1867 when gold fever drove the population from 250 to 26,000. Coal was also discovered during the same period and lead to the establishment of a more stable and ongoing industry. The relative isolation (mobile phones still don't work throughout much of the area) means that West Coasters are really a breed apart from the rest of the country - rock solid and very specifically to the point. The community is made up of many laid back artists, potters, carvers, glass blowers and weavers all inspired by the rugged beauty and mystery of this region and all slightly crazy, as we discovered when we decided to spend the evening bone carving!
 
I was particularly excited about this activity, I would even go so far as to say it was the thing I was looking forward to the most! This is because when my brother, Gareth, came he made a beautiful carving and I wanted one! Seagull dropped Matt, Laura, Kevin, Sarah and me off in the middle of nowhere and after a long walk through a field, we reached what can only be described as a tin shack! This was in fact part of Karen's (the bone carving lady) house and the rest was in the same fashion! After introducing herself, she asked if we were okay with dogs . We all answered yes and she let them in, turns out what she should have asked is, "are you all okay with horses?" As one of them was absolutely massive!! He wouldn't stop running around like a lunatic and barking until we had all gone outside and looked at the big rock he had made his 'friend' by the looks of it they were very good friends indeed! It was all very odd! The other 2 dogs weren't quite as mad, luckily! Our first task was to choose a design for our carving. I had been researching some designs online but nothing had grabbed me until I spotted one of Karen's designs on her display board. I really liked the shape of it and the Maori meaning that goes with it seemed to fit neatly with my personality and beliefs too. Matt & Laura also chose designs from the display whereas Kevin & Sarah designed their own. Next we were all given a piece of cow bone and told to draw our design onto the bone. The bonus to choosing one of Karen's designs was that there was a ready made template so no free hand drawing was required! Karen then went around the edge and into the tricky areas with a blade saw before showing us how to use the belt sander to get up close to the pencil outline and smooth all the edges off . I haven't used equipment like this since high school so I was a little wary but Matt is used to these kinds of machines so he helped me out! Once we had sanded all the way to the outline we had to use an internal drill to bevel the edges, it was almost like a little drill dentists use to grind your teeth down. This was far trickier than Karen made it look and took us absolutely ages! It paid off though as, by the time we finished, our carvings were really beginning to look the part! Matt even decided to embellish his design by adding a silver fern outline on the front. He was very nervous doing this as his carving looked really good so we both knew he'd be very angry if he messed it up now. Luckily he did a good job and Karen tidied it up a bit for him. The final step was to sand the whole thing, making sure the edges were really smooth and all imperfections were gone. Karen gave us different grade sandpapers to make it look perfect and then, after a final going over by Karen, she polished them up for us and put them on a string so we could wear them! The whole process took about 5 hours and was much longer and more difficult than I had anticipated but it was worth it as I love both our carvings . Kevin's and Laura's were lovely too but Sarah's was amazing, she's obviously very naturally arty. 
 
Once all 5 of our carvings were finished, we all made our way back up the 'garden' to Karen's car as she was giving us a lift to our hotel. She had also decided to stay out for a few drinks so loaded 2 of her dogs into the front seat as she can't leave them at home overnight! This is because one of them is the crazy big dog and I certainly wouldn't leave him behind either. During the journey, Karen explained that her house isn't technically legal as, while she owns the land, the building isn't a permanent structure and, as she has been living in it for 11 years, her 2 year permit for a temporary structure has long since expired! She didn't seemed fazed at all though, even when she explained that no part of the building is secured to the ground and every year it is a worry that one of the many cyclones that pass through the area will just pick it up and destroy it! She also told us that approximately 40 people in the area live in the same way as she does! Crazy!! The police and council know about all these houses but because it's such a small town and the houses are hidden behind the trees, away from the road they don't seem to care . She has a wood burner for heat and hot water, a diesel generator for the electricity and she collects all her own rain water. Pretty crazy indeed!
 
The town we were spending the night in was called Blackball, which is a small town with a long gold and coal mining history, as well as an interesting political background. The town was the first place in New Zealand where workers collectively and successfully striked to achieve better working conditions, signalling the start of collective movements in the Country, as well as the establishment of the New Zealand Labour Party. The NZ Communist Party Headquarters were also established in the town in 1925 due to the town's reputation for militant order. Today, the town's population is around 370 although we only saw about 5 people! We were staying in a little hotel called the Blackball Hilton, don't be fooled by this though as in actual fact it's now called 'Formally the Blackball Hilton', as a certain Hilton family and hotel chain decided to take them to court and forced them to change the name even though they had been called that since the 1860s . Obviously the Hiltons won, which is where the "Formally" comes in as they were ordered to change their name. The word Hilton is the only similarity it's got with a Hilton hotel though as this was undoubtably the worst place we'd stayed in since we arrived in New Zealand. The whole place was freezing cold and really dated: they claimed they were trying to keep it as it was back in the day but I believe it's more likely they just don't make enough money to pay for any refurbishments as no one other than the Stray bus goes there and they are pulling out at the end of the winter season! The only real plus for it was that the double rooms were the same price as a dorm so we actually got a double bed for the night!
 
Seagull had promised us a fancy dress party as it was his birthday but he was feeling poorly and went straight to bed so after a quick catch up with those who hadn't been bone carving, I headed to bed. Matt stayed up a bit later with the boys for some beers and to play pool before making his way up to bed too. Whilst playing pool Matt got to meet the final member of our Stray family, a guy called Trevor. We had seen him on the bus before but he was very quiet and hadn't spoken to anyone at all so we had assumed his English must have been really bad so he was quite shocked when he introduced himself and it turned out he was actually American, so spoke perfect English! It seemed he'd had a few crazy days so was feeling a bit jaded and had just kept himself to himself, although he turned out to be a pretty decent pool player!
 
I had wanted to get up in the morning for the walking tour of the town at 9am but Matt had managed to persuade me not to set an alarm and if we woke up we would go. Fortunately for Matt, we just about woke up in time but I didn't want to get up, so we didn't go. Which was a good decision because the people who went told us how awful it was. It seems like Matt's getting good at predicting these bad trips!!