Day 91 - Murchison to Westport : exploring ... part VI (and an alternative Twelve Days TO Christmas...)

Next to the river Buller, not far out of Murchison, is the longest swing-bridge in NZ; 110m long and Lord only knows how high! 

The views to the canyon below were spectacular and we did a shortish walk through the old gold-mining works - a major fault line runs through here and, in the 1929 earthquake, the ground rose by 4.5m which makes for interesting terrain. You can apparently still pan on the river as well -  you can have a go yourself (allegedly a tourist recently found a nugget worth NZ$900, much to the locals' chagrin!)

Then onward to the coast (the mouth of the Buller) at Westport, and Cape Foulwind with a seal colony, a cheeky weka (another flightless native)

and more great views. 

Westport (first settled in 1861) itself has some nice architecture, particularly the municipal buildings (plus NZ's last open-cast mining!). 

We've also been looking at various towns' cenotaphs - shocking how many suggest that brothers or cousins from a small town were lost in WWI (and even worse if the same name crops up in the WWII list). Westport's is an impressive memorial.

By way of festive cheer, we're going to do a reverse "Twelve Days of Christmas" countdown to 24/12, Kiwi style.

Feel free to sing along...

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 
A kiwi in a fern tree" 

TBC!