Kaiteriteri to Westport
We boarded the coach early to get to Westport before sunset. The only stop of the day was Lake Nelson. Here we would jump in the most photographed lake in NZ. This was because of its backdrop and has become a place to take "The Photo" that everybody else takes. It was FREEZING. But with Matt's immunity to feeling the cold he stripped off ready for the jump of the pier. Char was backing off from the activity. On entry to pier the clear water revealed what lurked under its surface..... Hundreds of four inch thick, 3 metre long eels inquisitive to humans and likely to sink their teeth into you if they feel threatened. Like usually Matt let some guinea pigs go first to analyse the eels reaction to the invasion of their space.
The Method that Matt adopted was well thought out. Put the camera into burst mode (30 photos a second), so that he will only have to jump in once. Then climb up the pier to get out to avoid any interaction with the monsters.
The outcome: When Matt jumped in the water was so cold his calf muscles went into spasm making it incredibly hard to get out causing panic. Luckily after a while he made it out. Char captured the photo..... That's what counts!
In the evening the group activity was a four legged bar crawl. One man in the middle with a girl tied either side. Surely no one could get hurt right?!?!
After the first bar Matt's partner to the right took a tumble, taking everyone else with her. Imagine this..... Matt on all fours with a girl either side, the one on the left screaming with a potential broken ankle. Of course everybody got involved. It took about 5 minutes to get scissors and cut them free. Matt was staying deadly still trying not to move his foot that was attached to the accident. Eventually he got the "you can get up now" from the nurse in the group. He proceeded to get up when the casualty started screaming. They had only cut one of the ties.....Oooops.
The incident put an abrupt end to the evening. However, it was 12am. We got back to the hostel and randomly Matt gave a midnight guitar lesson to an Irish women over some Vegemite on toast.
M & C xxxx
P.s. The ankle luckily wasn't broken, thank goodness.