Westport

Day 1: We continued along the west coast of the south island towards the small town of Westport. Just one night here and the activities weren't taking place until the following morning so we had an afternoon to kill.

After checking in, myself, Cahal and James went for a kick-about at a nearby field and it felt good to have a ball at my feet again after so long away. That's probably what I'm missing most about being back home (only joking family - of course it's you).

That evening, 5 of us headed into the town for some dinner and a few games of pool.

Day 2: Up bright and early so that myself, Cahal, Casey and a Dutch guy called Tag could all go Quad-Biking. I'd never been before so was looking forward to it as I've heard it's great fun.

Being the most inexperienced of the 4 of us, I was lucky enough to get the automatic bike, which I was very grateful for. Even more so when we set off and I got to fully appreciate how fast and powerful they are. It was hard enough trying to control it and not roll the thing without having to worry about gears as well!

They had had some rain in the area, which made for a really muddy track, making it even more enjoyable. It took me a little while to get used to it and I got stuck a couple of times at the start but once I got the hang of it, it was great fun. Cahal and Casey have been quite a few times and told me this was quite a challenging track and it certainly seemed that way to me. It was awesome though and we had good fun caking each other in mud and practicing donuts in the big mud puddles. I was totally useless at these though so didn't exactly give as good as I got. Of all the mud that covered me by the end, I reckon Cahal was probably responsible for about 80% of it after soaking me several times. Great fun though.

The trip lasted about 3 hours and was really enjoyable. It's definately something I'd like to try again one day. Great fun. No time to rest as we were back on the bus straight away that afternoon, heading even further down the west coast towards Lake Mahinapua. Party time!