Karamea

Karamea sits peacefully behind the dunes in the northwest corner of the South Island. It is 92 kilometers north of Westport, over a treacherous yet breathtaking hill road. It is prone to slumping and slippage so pay attention to speed limits. The road is sealed all the way and is pure joy for people who enjoy driving (especially a manual transmission). Those with expensive tastes in fuel must make sure to fill up in Westport as the local petrol station in Market Cross only stocks 91 RON and diesel. Also note there are no petrol stations on the main road between Westport and Karamea.

Karamea is a place that epitomises Kiwi hospitality and friendliness. On the drive in Zonk got unsolicited "hi there" waves from a gentleman crossing the road at Little Wanganui, and from a cow-cocky heading to the milking shed on his quadbike. The term cow-cocky is a widely used NZ colloquialism referring to dairy farmers.

Karamea is the nearest large settlement to the West Coast end of the Heaphy Track, one of NZ's Great Walks. It has a moderate climate, similar to Nelson's. The sight of Nikau palms will forever be etched in your memory as an iconic reminder of this beautiful place.

The scenic bushland of the Oparara area used to be forestry land, but was purchased by the Oparara Trust and in conjunction with NZ's Department of Conservation (DoC) has been developed as parkland for the tourist industry.

The most impressive sight is the Oparara Arch, a 200 meter long tunnel the roof of which is high enough for trees to grow beneath. This photo shows the first glimpse you get of it as you walk along the pretty stream-side walking track. The track from the carpark takes about 15-20 minutes to walk.

Here you see trees growing beneath the arch as you look skyward to its roof.

The road in is a 16 km single-lane gravel track and drivers are warned of the 35km speed limit and the need to switch headlights on. Don't forget to switch them off again when you get to the car park. The park has toilet and picnic facilities, as well as an interesting display of the area's history. Part of the park, known as K Road, has been developed specifically for mountain bikers.

This beautiful sunset was snapped on 23-Dec-2008 from the beach at Karamea.

Denniston Incline

The Denniston Incline, located north of Westport was an engineering marvel in an era when Mt Rochfort Plateau was mined for its coal. The incline was a track and pulley system that sent wagons with around 10-12 tonnes of coal down a steep hill, its weight causing an empty wagon to rise to the top. When the incline ceased operation in 1967, an estimated 12 million tonnes of coal had been shifted down the hill.

NZ's Department of Conservation have preserved what's left of the incline, and the Denniston village that was once perched at the top of the hill. There's a small shed containing stories from the incline's heyday and some are quite remarkable. One woman detested the walk up the hill so much that she didn't leave Denniston for 14 years. In another, a drunken miner tried to walk up the incline to get home, using the sleepers like rungs on a ladder. Halfway up he missed a rung and fell all the way to the bottom. In the morning he woke up and couldn't remember how he'd got there. A more gruesome story is about a boy who tried to ride an empty wagon. His body was eventually found with one arm missing.

This picture of Kirwin was taken on 24-Dec-2008. If you look carefully you can see a scar in the bush above Kirwin's beak. That is where the incline used to run, so it gives you a good idea about just how steep the incline was. The township of Waimangaroa is in the distance.




This photograph of Kirwin studying a DoC plaque shows Denniston when it was a flourishing town. Although many of the foundations are still visible, sadly most of the buildings are gone. Today only a half dozen remain. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

The road to Denniston Incline is steep and windy, but sealed all the way. Take it easy on the hairpins as occasionally you'll meet a truck coming down the hill and they need to swing wide to get around the corner. Here's a view taken on a rare straight stretch of the road, near the top looking back towards Westport.

Cape Foulwind

Cape Foulwind juts out into the Tasman Sea just south of Westport. It is off the beaten track known as State Highway 6, but is well worth the time and effort to visit and explore.

Cape Foulwind has the distinction of being the first piece of NZ ever seen by a Pakeha. Pakeha is a Maori word referring to white-skinned people. It is not offensive and international visitors are likely to hear the term used a lot. In 1642 Abel Tasman (Dutch) named it Rocky Cape. More than a century later Captain James Cook (British) sailed past in his ship the Endeavour. The weather was nasty and Endeavour was blown out to sea and held offshore for a week, earning the cape its present name.

One of the West Coast's best kept secrets is Bay House Café, at Tauranga Bay on Cape Foulwind (not to be confused with the better known port of Tauranga in the North Island). The food is divine and the view outstanding. Kirwin drank a yummy iced coffee while Zonk tried the Nanami vegetable tempura (23-Dec-2008). You can see the café's red roof at the left of the photo above. The building has a colourful history having been at various times a doctor's bach and surfer's club headquarters. The word bach is used widely in New Zealand to refer to a no-frills family holiday cottage. Rumour has it the word bach was originally an abbreviation for the term bachelor's pad. Some people in the South Island use the word crib instead.

Other attractions in the area include a NZ fur seal colony and lighthouse (first lit in 1876, then rebuilt and relit in 1926) with easy walking tracks to them managed by NZ's Department of Conservation. Both attractions are 10 minute's walk from their respective carparks, or there is a 90 minute one-way walk from one to the other.

Punakaiki (a.k.a. Pancake Rocks)

Punakaiki is a Maori word created by transliteration of the English word pancake. The rocks on this peninsula are a geological phenomenon in which layers of limestone and softer mud were layered, thrust upward by earthquake, and then the softer layers eroded away creating rock formations that look like a stack of pancakes. Thus the name Pancake Rocks.

The best time to visit the area is at high tide as that is when the blowholes are in full effect. Allow at least 45 minutes to walk the loop track around the area. This gives you time for a leisurely stroll with lots of photo opportunities.

You can't miss the entry to the walkway on the seaward side of State Highway 6, right opposite the Punakaiki café/gallery and DoC office. There's a large carpark at the northern end of the area (inland side) to help keep the road clear for through traffic.

New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DoC) have done a wonderful job bridging, paving, and signposting an easy walkway around the formations. Kirwin says it was disappointing to see so many tourists walk right past the green and gold donations box and not make any contribution. He put his $2 worth in on 22-Dec-2008. Zonk donates too even though she's already contributed to conservation via taxes.

A few minutes north of Punakaiki is the 30min Truman Walk, which leads through native bush to the end of a peninsula and down a wooden staircase to a sandy little cove. This walk is well worth doing. If you don't feel up to the staircase you still get this wonderful view of the cove.

Kirwin and Zonk stayed at the Punakaiki Resort, located at the southern end of the rocks area right on Punakaiki Beach (in real estate terms absolute beach front). It has a lovely restaurant facing southwest across the beach and is therefore perfect for romantic sunset dinners. There's a webcam on the roof above reception so you can see the view for yourself on their website. This is a green resort and the owners have gone the extra mile not to overly impact the environment at the site. Buidings were constructed around larger plants, and others were relocated as necessary. Cleaning products and complimentary bathroom items are ecologically friendly. Power supply is augmented with solar panels, and building materials used are also eco-friendly and sustainable. This was the view from Zonk's eco-suite.

Franz Josef & Lake Matheson

Franz Josef Glacier is one of only two glaciers in the world that terminate in rainforest. It catches about 30 meters of snow in its neve (bowl, or catchment area) each year and descends steeply toward the sea. Franz Josef travels about ten times faster than most of the world's valley glaciers because of the gradient and water running beneath it.

According to Maori legend, the glacier formed from the frozen tears of a woman whose lover tragically fell to his death while climbing the mountains with her.

Franz Josef village services the tourists coming to visit the glacier, and is an ideal place to stop for the night if you have driven from Queenstown. There are a handful of restaurants and some newly opened hot pools, along with tour operators for scenic flights and hiking/climbing on the glacier itself.

Lake Matheson is only a few kilometers out of Franz Josef village and directions are well sign-posted. This lake is often seen on NZ postcards with the Southern Alps reflected on its surface. Unfortunately the day Kirwin and Zonk went (21-Dec-2008) it was a bit too windy for that classic shot so Kirwin entertained himself by making like a Tui (the fighter pilot of NZ's native birds) and landed himself in a tree.

Who says Kiwis can't fly?

West Coast

The West Coast is an imaginatively named region of the South Island that is about 600km in length, running from Kahurangi National Park in the north, to Fjordland in the south along - surprise, surprise - the west coast. The area has spectacular views of rugged coastline, snow-capped mountains, dense rainforest or any combination thereof. Kirwin says he knows a cute little Kiwi chick named Rowina living just out of Okarito.

This photo was taken from an Emirates Airline A340-500 in 2007 on the day Kirwin returned with Zonk to live in New Zealand. It shows the West Coast roughly from Kakapotahi south across Stillwater and Okarito lagoons, Lake Mapourika, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier villages, to Bruce's Bay and beyond. It is very uncommon to get such great visibility of the West Coast. It rains 4 days out of 7 so it is tough to get a photo without cloud.

With such a lot of water around, there are plenty of sandflies so stay on top of your insect repellant applications. Another by-product of the high rainfall is pakihi soil that floats atop a layer of water and makes life a bit interesting for the farmers. Imagine trying to herd cattle on a waterbed.

Peole who live on the West Coast are known throughout New Zealand as Coasters. They are generally fairly hardy and/or colourful characters who've made a conscious decision to live off the beaten track and feast on whitebait fritters, a local delicacy that you have to try at least once in your life. Zonk's grandmother used to make them for her when she was a little girl.

Lake Hawea & Haast Pass

Kirwin reckons this is the best photo anybody's ever taken of him. It was taken at a roadside rest stop on State Highway 6 (SH6) just before the road bends away from Lake Hawea (pictured) westward toward Lake Wanaka.

Between Lake Hawea and Haast (141 km) there are no petrol stations. This catches out a lot of tourists so if you are planning to go here, make sure to fill up at every opportunity. Those with sports cars requiring RON 98 are in for a surprise as it is not stocked in many places outside major towns/cities. Mobil and BP are the only gasoline companies to supply RON 98 in New Zealand. Generally speaking it is OK to use RON 95 instead of 98 (check with car manufacturer) but very remote places will often only stock diesel and RON 91.

SH6 between Haast and Wanaka is split into two basic views: lakes and mountains on the southern/eastern side, and lush rainforst on the northern/western side. Kirwin says to remind our Australian guests that the term bush means something completely different in NZ. Walk a couple of meters into NZ bush and you are likely to lose sight of the track as the forest is so dense.

SH6 is easily the most scenic highway in New Zealand and there is never a dull moment for the driver either. There are plenty of one lane bridges, especially on the West Coast. Highway is a misnomer for many international visitors who expect it to be a multi-lane freeway. Actually it is one lane each way, with the occasional passing lane and plenty of slow traffic bays on the shoulder. The Haast Pass section of SH6 has all of the above plus chicanes and hairpins thrown in for good measure. Drive defensively on this road.

An underpinning philosophy in NZ is that, being so remote, we play nicely and share our toys. If you're in a camper van and there's a string of traffic piled up behind you, the thing to do is pull into a slow traffic bay and let faster folks get past you. Failing to do so will generate a healthy dose of road rage and the potential for risky over-taking manoeuvres in which people die fairly regularly. Buses and trucks will sometimes indicate they are turning left as a means of letting you know it is OK to pass them. You will know when this is happening because they aren't slowing down enough to turn. [Editor's note: the Kiwi sign photo was taken near Okarito on the West Coast.]

Because the roads in NZ are often windy, narrow and/or steep, calculating driving times is not as straight forward as allowing 100km per hour on an open road. For example, the road between Wanaka and Haast is 141 km but it will take a bit over three hours to drive it. Here's a handy website to help you plan yor trip.

You can also reasonably expect to have a dirty vehicle - dust over the back window and a generous smattering of bug splat on the windscreen. Stone chips are also common outside the main centres.

When you get to the Haast side of the pass expect a full-on attack from sandflies (also known as midges). The NZ sandfly is as evil as the mosquito in most other parts of the world although it is not equipped with a bio-warfare arsenal i.e. no yellow fever, dengue fever, or malaria. You won't die from a bite, but apply insect repellant liberally if you can't stand to be itchy. Calamine lotion is a good remedy should you encounter commando sandflies.

Kirwin survived Haast Pass with Zonk at the wheel on 21-Dec-2008.