Ever wondered... how did I end up in freezing water wearing rubber waders and holding a tire?
Neither did we, until it happened to us. We bid a sad goodbye to wee Fox, and 
arrived in Greymouth, one of the biggest cities on NZ's west coast (10,000 people! Look out!). We had nothing planned the first night there, so we asked the info lady at the bus station what was good to do, and without a beat she replied "The 
Monteiths Brewery tour". So, in celebration of Canada Day, we booked the tour and the add on BBQ afterwards. We arrived at our motel, and checked out the "beach" behind our room. Turned out to be an absolutely beautiful rugged, rocky beach that was empty for miles, with a gorgeous sunset. We built a stone stack and made a wish, as per Maori custom in NZ. Some of my favourite pictures taken so far.
As we waited for the van to pick us up and take
us to the brewery, we played 
some games of pingpong in the motel's "games room" which, in addition to the ping pong table, housed a broken fridge, washer, dryer (both broken), 6 discarded couches, arcade games from the early 80s, a crib, and an old matress. Once at the Monteiths Brewery, one of the oldest in NZ, we got a tour, then got to "sample" all 7 
varieties... sample here meaning almost a full pint. Then once that was done, our host simply said, "you have 20 mins left before the bbq... get back there and pour whatever you want!" It was the perfect way for us to celebrate Canada Day!!
The next morning, we had booked what the brochure had called "Black Water Rafting and Absailing (Rock Repelling)." Greymouth is known for its great caves. We showed up to the place and were told a guide called in sick, so we couldn't do the repelling part of the trip. Boo that. Next we met our group, which consisted of a really cute tour guide, an Aussie family that filled out the health questionnaire with answers such as "night asthma", "I have a cold", and "a bad knee that happened many ye
ars ago and hasn't really bothered me for a while", and two asian brothers who were both named Enrique. Again, I can't make this stuff up. So as we started getting ready, we began to think.... um, this doesn't look like normal preparations for a rafting trip. We changed into BO smelling long johns and stepped into these massive rubber hip waders, then strapped ourselves into too tight wetsuit tops, a rubber head skull, a helmet, and neoprene cut out mittens. Don't we look gorgeous? So, yeah, we ACTUALLY signed up for some deranged form of tourist torture/hilarity called blackwater cave tubing. We grabbed old innertubes, trekked into the river and then literally just sat down in the innertubes and practiced paddling. At no point did any of us on the tour stop and say "wait, what the hell is going on here?". We just sat in the tubes and floated down the river as freezing water poured into every available open space. For FOUR hours! In between lazing down the river and trying to a
void hypothermia (I had a complete inability to float straight or gain any speed at all), we did bum jumps into our tubes, did a slide down a rock face on a peice of cut out plastic which resulted in Marissa's complete submersion in the icy water (cute tour guide was impressed with the entry), then hooked all of our feet together and had the guide drag us through a pitch black cave (see website promotional photo!) where we stopped in the middle of the cave to look at glow worms and randomly have a glass of hot chocolate. This day will go down in history as one of the most bizarre and ultimately the most fun mornings of our lives... although I think our bikinis still smell of craggy muddy creek water and 4 of my fingers still haven't warmed up.
arrived in Greymouth, one of the biggest cities on NZ's west coast (10,000 people! Look out!). We had nothing planned the first night there, so we asked the info lady at the bus station what was good to do, and without a beat she replied "The 
Monteiths Brewery tour". So, in celebration of Canada Day, we booked the tour and the add on BBQ afterwards. We arrived at our motel, and checked out the "beach" behind our room. Turned out to be an absolutely beautiful rugged, rocky beach that was empty for miles, with a gorgeous sunset. We built a stone stack and made a wish, as per Maori custom in NZ. Some of my favourite pictures taken so far.As we waited for the van to pick us up and take
us to the brewery, we played 
some games of pingpong in the motel's "games room" which, in addition to the ping pong table, housed a broken fridge, washer, dryer (both broken), 6 discarded couches, arcade games from the early 80s, a crib, and an old matress. Once at the Monteiths Brewery, one of the oldest in NZ, we got a tour, then got to "sample" all 7 
varieties... sample here meaning almost a full pint. Then once that was done, our host simply said, "you have 20 mins left before the bbq... get back there and pour whatever you want!" It was the perfect way for us to celebrate Canada Day!!The next morning, we had booked what the brochure had called "Black Water Rafting and Absailing (Rock Repelling)." Greymouth is known for its great caves. We showed up to the place and were told a guide called in sick, so we couldn't do the repelling part of the trip. Boo that. Next we met our group, which consisted of a really cute tour guide, an Aussie family that filled out the health questionnaire with answers such as "night asthma", "I have a cold", and "a bad knee that happened many ye
ars ago and hasn't really bothered me for a while", and two asian brothers who were both named Enrique. Again, I can't make this stuff up. So as we started getting ready, we began to think.... um, this doesn't look like normal preparations for a rafting trip. We changed into BO smelling long johns and stepped into these massive rubber hip waders, then strapped ourselves into too tight wetsuit tops, a rubber head skull, a helmet, and neoprene cut out mittens. Don't we look gorgeous? So, yeah, we ACTUALLY signed up for some deranged form of tourist torture/hilarity called blackwater cave tubing. We grabbed old innertubes, trekked into the river and then literally just sat down in the innertubes and practiced paddling. At no point did any of us on the tour stop and say "wait, what the hell is going on here?". We just sat in the tubes and floated down the river as freezing water poured into every available open space. For FOUR hours! In between lazing down the river and trying to a
void hypothermia (I had a complete inability to float straight or gain any speed at all), we did bum jumps into our tubes, did a slide down a rock face on a peice of cut out plastic which resulted in Marissa's complete submersion in the icy water (cute tour guide was impressed with the entry), then hooked all of our feet together and had the guide drag us through a pitch black cave (see website promotional photo!) where we stopped in the middle of the cave to look at glow worms and randomly have a glass of hot chocolate. This day will go down in history as one of the most bizarre and ultimately the most fun mornings of our lives... although I think our bikinis still smell of craggy muddy creek water and 4 of my fingers still haven't warmed up.
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