16th Feb - Another early departure and we headed South towards Lake Mahinpua. We stopped off on the way to see the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and blowholes. We had a photo taken of all of us lying across a bridge. Stuart decided to go over snap happy and take a million photos on my camera. Bloody Essex! After taking some scenic photos, we jumped back on the bus and continued to L.M. We had a new bus driver since Wellington, called Vaughan, who informed us of the nights fancy dress party... A.B.C. For those who don't know, that's anything but clothes. Hmmm! Our little group conferred about what to wear and after a few suggestions, we settled with Stuart's idea.. Babies. Haha! Shortly after, we stopped off in a little town called Greymouth to buy our outfits. It was nice and simple.. we headed to the supermarket and bought nappies and dummies. We ate our usual lunch (ham+tomato rolls) which us girls happened to always make. Apparently making lunch was a girls job - so Si told us!
We got back on the bus and made our way to the hotel we were staying at. But beforehand, Vaughan said if anyone wanted to play a game to chip in $2. So not knowing what this game was, we chipped in. Later, the bus stopped and Vaughan told us to get out if we were playing the game. Hannah had passed out so I left her to sleep. When we got out, Vaughan put us into two teams and gave us a bag of goon for each team. I instantly knew what the game was - a duck race!! I was pretty sure I was on the winning team, as myself, Kylie and Stu were on it; course we were gonna win! Kylie managed to spill goon all down her top (just as well she was wearing a bib later on!), but despite this I had predicted correct.. We were the champions!!
Feeling a tad tipsy, Vaughan drove us to our hotel. Once again, there were 6 o us so we managed to get a lodge all to ourselves! We had a team nap and then headed down for a yummy steak dinner. It was one of the only proper meals we'd had in a while, which we washed down with some beer. It was time to get ready in our special dress for the night. Possibly the easiest getting ready of my life.. Pull on a nappy, wear a plastic carrier bag round your neck and stick a dummy in. We were ready to rock and roll!!! The boys looked hilarious as they tried to fit their package into a tiny nappy, whilst we just about managed to pull off 'cute'. We even had the baby belly (courtesy of all the goon, vodka and beer we had been drinking the last few months). That's what travelling does to you.
When we headed out, we had a fun-filled night of being dancing babies. I had fun dipping my dummy into my pint of snakebite and then sucking it. Mmm! Everyone else's outfits looked great - there were people dressed in their backpacks, dressed as presents (in wrapping paper) and dressed in bin bags. My highlight of the night was when Stuart chundered all over the bar after doing a shot, as well as me capturing the moment when our ginge friend Si conversed with another ginge at the bar. Classic.
I had a bit of a nightmare that night and completely ripped my nappy due to my big bum! I had to go rush back to the room and 'change my nappy'. I ripped it again later on but luckily it just about hung on.
Adz continued to murk the jukebox and rocked out tunes such as Oasis - Wonderwall. I think this has become the tune for me for New Zealand. I have Adz to thank for that!
Eventually the babies had to go to bed. So we practically crawled (it's allowed!) back to our room. That was probably one of the funniest nights in New Zealand!