Blackball is perhaps the most unique stop on our Stray bus tour. Logistically it’s a mid-way stopping point between two of New Zealand’s biggest natural attractions, Abel Tasman National Park and Franz Josef Glacier. It’s in the middle of nowhere, but that doesn’t stop the townspeople from having a, well, ball.

I’ll start with our accommodation for the night: The Blackball Hilton. Wait, scratch that — it’s now called Formerly the Blackball Hilton. Something to do with a cease and desist from the Hilton Hotel chain. But the name overlap is purely coincidental — the property is named after the road it sits on and has been called such for over 100 years.

Here are some fellow passengers from the Stray bus:

Here’s the main bar in the (Formerly) Blackball Hilton:

The rooms have more charm than typical hostels.

Here’s the common area for backpackers. Again, loads of character.

What an odd duck. We find out that all these props and costumes will come into play…

…later at night as we gather in the main bar. I sneak down for a few minutes and find my fellow passengers enjoying beer, cards, and dress-up.

Yes, that is a gentleman in ladies’ swimwear. Just another night at the (Formerly) Blackball Hilton.

The next morning we embark on a historic guided walking tour of Blackball. It used to be a big mining town (there was a major disaster in the mines in 2010 resulting in 29 deaths; this tragedy is well documented in newspaper articles wallpapering the main bar of the Formerly Blackball Hilton). Our guide is a local historian and she fills us in on everything we’d ever want to know about Blackball, and then some.

We walk down to the historic mine area (this is not where the 2010 tragedy occurred; that was at a different site nearby).

Afterwards we head to the Blackball Community Center for more discussion about the town’s history.

Our knowledgable guide explains that in Blackball “we make our own fun.” She passes around photos of several town-wide parties they’ve thrown over the years.

In honor of the Formerly Blackball Hilton’s 100 year anniversary, they held a Paris Hilton look-a-like contest. The winning team dressed as Paris and her dog Tinkerbell.

This next image is from a Blackball pub crawl… where participants had to LITERALLY CRAWL from bar to bar. On their knees. And then eat a bowl of dried cereal before continuing to the next bar.

I see someone cheating in the photo below.

This last set of photos is from an annual event where the local men dress in drag and then play picnic games like tug-of-war and a potato sack race. Hysterical.

And there you have it, folks. The odd and unique town of Blackball, New Zealand. Short on people, long on personality.