Synchronised Swimming at Lake Mahinapua

So yesterday morning (Monday) we left Westport at 9am and drove to Cape Foulwind for a hour long walk along the seafront. It would have been lovely if it hadn't been chucking it down. We did however see a colony of seals on the rocks below which were pretty cute.

After the walk we drove to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks. These we some pretty awesome rock formations that,  as the name suggests, look like stacks of pancakes. We stopped at the cafe across the road from the rock formations and had 40 minutes to see the rocks, hace lunch and generally do whatever you wanted. It was still chucking it down at this point so Lauren and I quick marched to the rock formations round the short circular paths, briefly stopping to take photos before heading back to the bus.

Our next stop was at the town of Greymouth where we had to shop for the evenings fancy dress party with the theme 'Olympics through the decades'. We had already planned what we were getting. The 6 of us were doing a group costume.

We then drove on to the Lake Mahinapua hotel. It was a bit of a shock when we arrived. You hear hotel you think big brick building. It was a collection of corragated iron huts and porter cabins. But we were in a room of six and the beds were comfy and the showers were hot and almost powerful.

We spent two hours showering, preparing our costume and getting ready be free heading off to dinner at half 7. Dinner was excellent. It was roast pork, roast potatoes, veg and gravy, garlic bread, crackling, and a brownie to finish. After dinner we changed into our costume.

We dressed up as a synchronised swimming team. We had a paddling pool which we decorated and cut holes in the bottom so we could stand in it. We fashioned swimming caps out of a material we found in the costume room at the hotel and we had goggles we had bought, as well as nose strips for nose pegs. The six of us wore the paddling pool round our waists and we all had to move together to go anywhere. It was very funny trying to fit through doors. People seemed to like it as some took pictures and people kept coming up to us. We did some synchronised dancing for effect. The party went on until well past midnight but we were getting tired so went to bed. 

This morning when we got up we were provided with breakfast, which was pancakes and bacon, maple syrup, and cereal and toast.