West Coast Weekend!

After finishing work at 5 on Sunday, Axel picked me up and we drove to Lake Pearson, on the way to Arthur's Pass. We found a good spot, off the beaten track, and set up camp. we had a great dinner of curry, and washed it down with a few beers, a great start to the weekend! We woke up in the morning and drove to the West Coast, passing coast to coast runners on the way through Arhtur's Pass. After Greymouth we stopped to pick up Axel's new kayak, then drove on to Punakaki. At punakaki there is a place called pancake rocks, where there are interesting layered rocks ( a bit of a tourist spot). We drove to Charlston and went for a walk up to caves where they do tours. The caves were closed, but not locked, so we snuck in with our head torches for a sneaky exploration! we ventured quite far in, and saw stalactites and stalagmites. We then heard voices in the distant cave, so made a swift exit! We ran out and luckily did not get caught! Shame we could not have explored more, but I have to admit, I was getting a bit worried that someone would come and lock the gates while we were in there!
We stumbled across a pile of large inner tubes on the way back down, used by the caving tours to do black water rafting (ie floating down a cave in the tube in the dark), we couldn't resist, and "borrowed" a couple, jumped in the river and tubed our way back down to the car, awesome! We obviously left them were they could be found and used again the next day.
That night we had dinner, and went to the local, and rather unfriendly, European Hotel for a beer, then returned to camp by the sea with a wine.
The next morning was bright and sunny, we set up a top roped and rappelled down a couple of sea cliff climbs, climbing back up them, in the sunshine. We only managed a couple of routes each before we had to leave for home, and night shifts again. A great weekend :-)