The West Coast - Golden Bay to Haast

Cape Farewell. It is at the start of the Farewell Spit

We left Nelson on Friday morning and drove north-west around Tasman Bay towards Golden Bay. The day was a mixture of sun and cloud - perfect for driving. We stopped for coffee in Motueka which was voted New Zealand’s best small town 2010. The old four room high school, built in 1913, is now a very fine café and restaurant. Our drive took us over the tail end of the Arthur Range, which provided some excellent views and some unprintable comments from Fran.

Over the Arthur Range. Nelson is lost in the haze in the top left corner.

We arrived in Collingwood, the last real town before the Farewell Spit and stayed in a charming 4 unit motel overlooking the Aorere River estuary. The river’s name seemed familiar and teased the edge of memory until a local reminded us that the river had flooded earlier in the summer during a series of torrential rain storms; then we remembered that we had seen it on the national news. Fran insisted in sleeping on the top bunk that night.

Saturday we spent the day touring Farewell Spit which is a 27 km long sand spit the curves around the north end of Golden Bay. It is a nature reserve and home to hundreds of species of wild birds and seals. There is a huge gannet colony near the end of the spit. Only two companies are licensed to take visitors onto the spit. We had an outstanding guide who was not only very knowledgeable, but who was also an excellent story teller. It was a great day.

Fur seal.

Gannet

Sand dune - in New Zealand!

Fran, Queen of the desert.

We left Collingwood early Sunday morning and started a full day’s drive to Westport. The drive along the Takaka River valley was magic. It was a beautiful early morning with the sunlight rich and golden. The farms in the valley were soft and gently nestled in the rolling hills in contrast to the mountains towering on both sides. It was one of the most beautiful drives that we have had to date. After the up and over the Arthur Range again, we had an unremarkable drive to the unremarkable town of Westport. Westport is the contradiction to all of our earlier observations about Kiwis. Here we saw many overweight folks dressed in baggy sweats and T-shirts, shuffling along. At least half of the shops in the downtown area were for sale, closed, or boarded up. What was open were bars, pool halls and off-track betting shops. We later learned that the town is a slowly dying coal mining town. It is a sad place.  Later in the week Fran discovered a series of books by a local author that she set in the town as it moved from prosperity to today.

The next day we were early on the road as we continued south. We made the required stops at Cape Foulwind to see the fur seal colony, and Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks. The drive south is fantastic. The mountains press right to the Tasman Sea, which means the road builders had to be creative. The views and some of the curves are breathtaking. The west coast is known to Kiwis as the wet coast since it averages 5 metres of rain a year. That’s enough to cover the sides of the mountains in rain forest. As you drive you have ocean, rain forest and mountains all part of the same view.

Punakaiki. The ocean erodes the rocks, lawyers of limestone and mudstone, into interesting shapes.

Typical views of the wet coast.

It takes a while to get anywhere with views like this.

The mountains, cloud shrouded, with rainforest and waterfalls.

Ken loves the waterfalls. He could fill a book...

Just another view from the road.

The road, the curves, the up and down.

Sometimes there isn't much room.....

........so they multi-purpose their bridges - one lane for cars and trains.

As if we needed to be told!

This does not inspire confidence - ask Fran.

We wanted to see Arthur’s Pass, the highest of the three passes that serve the highways crossing the Southern Alps. Originally we were going to take the train that runs from Christchurch to Greymouth and traverses the pass. It has temporarily stopped running to allow the rails, rolling stock and crews to bring supplies to Christchurch in the wake of the earthquake. We stopped in Greymouth and decided to drive to the pass and back as a day trip. The day was quite overcast with rain showers drifting around the mountains so some of the views were obstructed. We stopped for lunch at the little village at the top of the pass and then went for a hike.

The Waimakariri River Valley on the Christchurch side of Arthur's Pass. It reminded us of Alberta.

Hiking Dobson's Nature Walk in Arthur's Pass.

Our next stop was the town of Franz Josef to see the glacier. It is quite spectacular as it flows down from the Southern Alps into valleys covered in rain forest. Until three years ago the glacier was still growing.

Ken on the glacier.

Entering a cravasse.

Fran, drinking beer overlooking at the glacier.

After two nights in Franz Josef we continued south to Haast and then turned east, away from the coast, through the Haast Pass and towards our next destination, Wanaka.