We were dropped back at our hotel, but not before singing our guts out in the van on the way home – everything from Billy Joel to the Australian national anthem. Luckily the British couple who were the only others on the tour were very patient and understanding.
Back at the hotel and remarkably sober we decided to play a round of golf at a crazily cheap 9-hole course just outside town. Off we went, and found ourselves in a cow paddock with flags on it. Still, for $5 incl. club hire, there’s no complaining. In style and with delicate grace we decimated the course, each of us eventually making it round, the only casualties being two of my balls (another $3), but I still managed to nab the trophy by a few shots – the first game of golf I ever remember not losing.
To the hotel again, and we snuck some kiwi television in before hitting the sacks – “Beauty and the Geek” was a favourite.

Next morn we hit the frog’n’toad on our way to Greymouth. The drive was pretty interesting save for the minor fuel scare, where we first nearly ran out and then nearly had heart attacks at having to pay over $1.50/L for it. Catastrophes averted we made it to Greymouth and checked in at the hotel. By this time we were experts at asking around for advice – this time we got the tip of taking a drive along the road North of Greymouth (towards Westport) which had recently been titled one of the Top Five Drives in the world by the Lonely Planet Guide.

That afternoon’s activities were already planned though – caving. Not exactly what I’d expected (it was like an expedition more than a ride), but quite personally challenging because I took the option to climb through a few sections of really tight areas. I’d never really had the opportunity to see if I’m claustrophobic so I was a little worried, but not for long. I think that bit of uncertain adrenaline I had made me enjoy the trek more. We did some tubing through a section deep into the cave, and then climbed out, stopping off at a couple of places on the way to drink some hot Milo, before going on to do some more really narrow sections, including one beauty of a rock called “Rebirth”.

The guy who led us was really cool, and employed one or two psychological tricks aimed at people who are either scared or unfit or just plain whingers. The ones I noticed were “on the way back we’ll take a shortcut, it won’t take as long”, and when going through Rebirth “it’s ok, I’ll get you through”. We were lucky that there were no people in our group who were really scared or whingers. What we had instead were some Taiwanese guys and girls who didn’t really understand English (or at least Kiwi) as well as they could have, and were often going on too far or turning the wrong way or something. It nearly became a issue when we were out of the caves heading back to the van and we stopped to do a mud slide ride.