9/2/10 continued

The flora is changing as we travel further South and West, there are no more tree ferns and lots of larch and Radiata pine trees, some shrubs with purple bee shaped flowers and oak trees. We  made a stop at Lake Rotoiti, truly beautiful, with water so clear you could see every pebble on the bottom. The birds were obviously used to being fed and soon gathered at the water's edge to see if we were going to oblige. They looked well fed to me so we didn't. I've included a picture of the public toilets because they were ace. I'm not obsessed with loos, it is the architecture that impressed me, honestly!
We continued up the Buller River valley, driving through native beech forest, with manuka and kanuka shrubs. There were big conifer plantations looking neatly combed climbing up the sides of the mountains. The Owen River joins the Buller in a wonderful confluence in a deep gorge, then Murchinson town over yet another river into a huge river plane, all the scenery is so vast. When we entered the Buller district the tree ferns re-appear. It must have been the altitude that they can't cope with. At Ingahangua we leave the Buller Valley and head off to Westport in the lower Buller Gorge, through a big plain with the forest becoming more mixed with Whitewood trees, crocrosmia, bracken and tree ferns, kanuka and many more. The road goes into one lane cut into a cliff like a bite out of it. The cross section looks like a c. Arrive at Westport and there are no vacancy signs on all the motels. The town looked a right dump but there was no where to stay so we headed off towards Greymouth 120kms to the south, thinking we would find somewhere as we travelled. We saw some wonderful beaches with black sand and amazing gorges but no where to stay and as it was now after 6pm we couldn't really stop. We found one place with a studio apartment but Fran wanted his own room, naturally. So we went on and eventually ended up in Greymouth. There were no vacancies there either so we ended up sharing a hotel room. We had to move once because the first room stank of mildew but it wasn't ideal.