We left early this morning to continue down the coast to Lake Mahinapua Hotel - otherwise known as 'Poo Pub' - just 10km south of Greymouth. I'd heard that there's nothing to do there except get drunk, so as you can imagine I didn't exactly hold high hopes for the place!

It seems that everywhere on South Island is scenic and this drive was no different. We stopped at several lookouts and attractions on the way along the rugged Tasman shoreline, including the Cape Foulwind seal colony, a rocky coastal walk and the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks at Dolomite Point. The Pancake Rocks are in a heavily eroded area of the coast, where if its high tide or if there is a swell, the sea bursts spectacularly through 'blow holes' in the rocks you can get very wet even just standing at a distance. Unfortunately, the tide wasn't right for our visit, but the views were impressive nonetheless.

Our final stop along the way was in Greymouth, another fairly run down looking town, but bigger than Westport. Apparently we're having a fancy dress competition tonight (nightmare!) but thankfully our driver has decided on a crazy hat theme (sigh of relief!) so we took the opportunity to buy ourselves cheap and cheerful headgear in one of Greymouth's several junk stores. We also paid a visit to a café which had been awarded "Best Coffee on the West Coast" - shame Phil isn't here anymore to confirm this for me!

When we did finally arrive at Lake Mahinapua Hotel, it appeared that the name Poo Pub was a pretty accurate description. We are literally in the back of beyond on the wild, west coast of New Zealand. Les, the owner, is apparently the island's oldest publican at 85, and Kiwi Experience buses have been stopping here for over 20 years - I'm pretty sure its only Kiwi Experience keeping their business afloat! Still, its certainly a unique experience.

For most people, there really isn't much to do here except swim in the lake, but of course, you can always run! It's just under 1km down a track to the pretty Lake Mahinapua and there are another couple of bush tracks near the lake good for running. I also ran out along the road a little to the Mananui Bush Track which brought me out onto yet another wonderfully rugged (and empty) west coast beach. I ran back along the beach, although not without difficulty - all the pebbles and sand seemed to sink under my feet - nothing was solid to run on! I would have had no idea where to turn back off to the left to look for the hotel if it wasn't for a lone couple sitting on the beach in the distance, thankfully there's only one place they could possibly have come from!

We'd been warned not to swim in the sea here because of the number of strong rips and currents and I'd believe it - the sea looked angry even on a calm and sunny day.

I'm amazed at how little used the tracks are in New Zealand - they tend to be well signposted with times and distances marked at the start and there aren't generally any route choices, unless signposted to two different destinations, so navigating is pretty simple (touch wood!) I guess the South Island especially is so sparsely populated and there is such an abundance of tracks that its not unusual to be out for an hour or more and not meet another soul.

Feeling pretty exhausted when I arrived back at Poo Pub, I was pleased that tonight was a free meal night - cooked by our very own bus driver, Jed! It was a choice between a giant steak or homemade quiche (I won't tell the boys which one I chose...) with potatoes, pasta, veg and corn on the cob in enormous quantities! A huge meal, completely free of charge. Perhaps Poo Pub isn't so bad after all! Or maybe this is Kiwi Experience trying to make up for taking us to such a strange place...!

The rest of the evening went as well as could be expected I guess, although it did feel rather like a school trip. It was good to experience life with some real west coasters but I'm looking forward to moving on tomorrow!