Lots of other caves are near there, too, near the town of Nelson. Also there is another cave-club owned "hut" near there. This one is not a hostel, but NSS members can stay there, too.
Back in 1987 when I spent 2.5 months in Australia, I stopped off for a week in New Zealand on my way back to the States. I was riding around the South Island in the back seat of a car rented by two German guys I had met in a youth hostel in Nelson, and we decided to drive to Greymouth, which is on the West Coast, west of the mountain range that runs the length (from North to South) of the South Island. It was the dreariest place any of us had ever seen--and that's saying a lot, as I grew up in the Seattle area and have lived through many winter months of constant rain. We pulled into town at 3 PM in a steady downpour, the houses were as grey as the sky, and we instantly decided that we could spend the time to just drive on through and head east for better weather. By 7 PM we were not only in dry, sunny weather, we had gorgeous views of the Southern Alps and were cooking dinner in the youth hostel at Arthur's Pass.
Kiwis are incredibly friendly, generous, laid back people. By the end of my trip I wanted to stay there forever--but couldn't figure out how to finish my degree and make a decent living as a Ph.D. chemist. If you're only going for a week, you will soon discover that you wished you had a year to spend there enjoying all the outdoor activities and the camaraderie of the locals. It's a country of (20 years ago) 3.5 million people and 20 million sheep. And I swear that all of those people are somehow distantly related to each other--every local that stayed in the youth hostels would spend time working out how they were related and how the family was faring. It was surreal, but in a nice way.
Diana * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Associate Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biochemistry 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Rm. ND10.214B Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. Email: diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu 214-645-6383 (phone) 214-645-6353 (fax)
