The drive down the west coast of the West Island is one of the famously scenic drives in New Zealand. I say this with some caution as I have come to believe that there are many, many scenic drives on the South Island and it would probably be easier to categorize the stretches of road that are not scenic, and then simply assume all the rest are stunning.
Here are some photos of our time on the West Coast. The drive took us along rugged exposed coastlines with crashing waves, jagged rock formations, towering mountain ranges with snow covered peaks and looming glaciers. There were abundant waterfalls, roaring rivers, luminescent pools of water, clear creeks, smooth river stones, and lush forests dripping with moss, ferns and towering trees who dangled their roots from up high. It was an all you can eat feast for the eyes, for multiple days in a row.
Our route to the west coast took us from the Able Tasman via a stop in Murchison, to the town of Westport. From there we wound our way down the coast with overnight stops in Fox Glacier at a holiday park, a campsite outside the town of Hokitika and a couple of campground stops along the Haast highway, until we landed north of Wanaka on the shores of lake Hawea. This post is mostly a photographic record of some of our stops.
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| Murchison River |
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| Requisite stop at the ever-popular "pancake rocks" |
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| Hokitika - the site of the driftwood art festival. |
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| Our camping outside of Hokitika at Lake Mahinapua was less than stellar, mostly due to rain that started soon after dinner. |
Fox Glacier
Fox Glacier Walk - the unique aspect of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are that they tumble down from the high ice fields to lush rainforest. The glaciers have retreated in recent years, however we could still appreciate the ice from the humid shadows of the forest.
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| Fox Glacier |
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| Just chillin' looking at some glaciers. |
Nature walks around Fox Glacier, including self-guided tours to learn about the trees.
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| We enjoyed doing some little nature hikes around Fox Glacier. |
Gillespie's Beach
From the township of Fox Glacier we headed 21 kms towards the ocean on a dirt road and arrived to this beauty:
River Safari on the Waiatoto River outside of Haast.
We spent a few hours zooming up the Waiatoto River in a jet boat, then zooming back down the river to the ocean. It was a unique way to access pristine wilderness and lots of fun while the boat skimmed up the rapids and white water. Jet boats are a New Zealand invention and were apparently invented to serve as a way to access the interior more easily as they maneuver over very shallow water and can handle white water and rapids. Jet boats have become quite a tourist attraction, with lots of tours offering 20 minutes of breakneck speed tricks and spins. We opted for a longer jet boast experience that would do a bit of both.
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| We went up river into an isolated stretch of wilderness. |
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| This is where we turned around. Thank goodness. |
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| We got out and had a short "bush" walk |
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| The ride back down river was fast and exciting! |
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| We zoomed through white water and around turns. |
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| After zooming all the way down river to where it meets the ocean, we tucked into a gentle and peaceful lagoon. |
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| Our guide treated the kids to a couple of the famous 360 degree turns at the end, complete with getting wet. |
Jackson Bay - a remote and isolated bay.
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| Walking out to the tip of pier in desolate Jackson Bay. |
Haast Highway
The drive towards and over Haast Pass was beautiful with many great stops. This takes us out of west coast and moves us towards Wanaka.
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| Thunder creek falls - just off the road. |
We spent a night in the scenic DOC campground at Pleasant Flat with incredible views of Mt Hooker in the distance.
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| View from our campground |
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| Kids spent hours looking for greenstone in the river. |
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| Forest walk from the camp. |
Cameron Flat on the Haast Highway- what a place to stop for lunch!
Blue Pools Walk on Haast Highway
Lake Wanaka
Arriving at the shores of the huge twin lakes, lake Wanaka and lake Hawea, signaled the end of the west coast portion of the trip. We landed at one of our favorite campsites, Kidds Bush Reserve, on the shore of Lake Hawea, 40 minutes north of Wanaka for a few nights and used this as our basecamp to explore the Wanaka area.
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| The shores of Lake Hawea, from our campsite. |
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| Looking the other direction from the shoreline. |
The cautionary tale of the west coast is about the sandflies. Our experience was that these little black flies are present in great strength on the west coast, more than in Fiordland, which is reputed to usually be the worse location. The flies bite in great numbers and it is only after a day or two that the bites start to itch and burn. They are MISERABLE. Sandflies have a well established notoriety in New Zealand history and have been featured in many an explorer's description. We learned that it is rumored that after 1000 bites you will be immune, and we thought some of us were well on our way to reaching the target. Not very helpful information is the fact that sandflies prefer penguins, and will apparently fly right past a human if there is a penguin nearby. So next time I'm going to find myself a pet penguin to bring along...
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