Welcome to Part 4 of Fabulous Journeys’ coverage of the majestic South Island of New Zealand! I trust that you enjoyed the first 3 posts I made on this beautiful island. This week, I’ll be covering the road from Queenstown to the remote West Coast of the South Island.
From Wanaka to the Wild West Coast
The West Coast is one of the most sparsely populated regions in New Zealand, and not a great number of tourists visit this very lush and wild region. This area always reminds me of scenes from the movie “Jurassic Park”, with its huge ferns and native flora that has been in existence since the Jurassic era (or even older!). It’s very unique and a very fascinating place to visit, especially if you’re into nature and if you enjoy a wild and rugged atmosphere to the place.
I did this road trip once from Queenstown to the West Coast, and we passed through Wanaka before taking on the road to some of the most beautiful national parks in the country. As I’ve already mentioned Queenstown and Wanaka, I’ll be showing you the road between Wanaka and the West Coast, and what you can see and do on the West Coast of the South Island.
Lake Hawea and Mount Aspiring National Park
Roaring Billy
From Wanaka, you will pass by the next big lake that’s just equally as picturesque as Lake Wanaka, and this is Lake Hawea. The road winds through parts of its shore and offers a great view once the road starts to climb up. As you go further, you will reach the town of Makarora. It used to be a densely forested area, up until the 1800s, when the native trees were cut down to supply the needs of the Gold Rush in the Central Otago region. Now it has a power station, and is a starting point of numerous walking tracks into the Mount Aspiring National Park.
Mount Aspiring National Park is named after one of the tallest peaks in the Southern Hemisphere, Mount Aspiring. This mountains is almost always snowcapped, and stands out on a nice clear day. The area around it comprises the national park. There are several walking tracks in the area, and a number of them lead to some beautiful waterfalls. The amazing part is, some of them are only a 5 to 20 minute walk from the main highway! I managed to have a peak at a couple of the waterfalls, one of them is called Roaring Billy, and the other is called Fantail Falls. They are probably the easiest ones to get to, if you don’t have much time to explore. There are no major towns in between Wanaka and the West Coast, so the minute you get past Makarora, you will be in the wilderness.
Haast
The very next town you will get to once you leave Mount Aspiring National Park is the town of Hasst. This is already part of the West Coast. Haast is basically one end of the highway along the West Coast. This town has a visitors centre and a few shops. The visitor’s centre is worth checking out, as next door to it is a small museum about the South Westland World Heritage Park. This is the area around Haast and the nearby towns of Franz Josef and Fox Glacier.
Fox Glacier and Franz Josef
Me on a crevasse on Fox Glacier
These two towns are primarily catering to the tourists that have come to see the unique glaciers in the area that are remnants of the Ice Age. The amazing part of these 2 glaciers is that they appear in the middle of a rainforest, and have not melted since the Ice Age! Most glaciers around the world would either be on top of a snow-capped mountain or somewhere with extreme cold temperatures and ice all around them. The fact that these glaciers have not melted after the Ice Age and still exists today is a natural wonder. Some say that these glaciers are advancing, though in certain years they say it’s receding.
I was fortunate enough to have been able to walk on one of these 2 glaciers. I went on Fox Glacier, as this is the wider of the 2 glaciers, and one that is not as popular as Franz Josef. I did a half-day hike with a guide up through the rain forest, along the sides of the glacier, until somewhere half-way up the glacier. It’s interesting to note that though the group started walking near the mouth of the glacier, it was not advised that we set foot on the ice at the mouth, as it’s the most unstable part of the glacier. The ice melts in that area and falls into the river below. It’s one of the most amazing experiences I’ve done in New Zealand, and if you are keen on walking, I would recommend this tour. They provided the gear like the boots, crampons and the wet weather gear (as it rains very regularly in the West Coast).
Near Fox Glacier is a lake called Lake Matheson. On a nice clear day (if you’re extremely lucky with the rainy weather on the West Coast), you will be able to see Mount Cook, and the reflection of Mt. Cook on the lake is nice postcard-perfect photo.
Hokitika
This is one of the 2 major towns on the West Coast. They have a small airport that has regular flights to and from Christchurch. Hokitika is known for its annual Wild Foods Festival. This festival happens every March, and offers several out-of-this-world culinary experience. You can try things like huhu grubs, bull semen, fried spiders, to name a few. This town is also known for its jade (“pounamu” in Maori), as a lot of it is gathered in the nearby mountain.
Greymouth and Shantytown
Shantytown
From Hokitika, if you drive up north, you will first pass by a place called Shantytown. Shantytown is like a well-preserved town in the 1860s, and offers visitors a glimpse of life in the West Coast during the Gold Rush. It’s a very unique place and gives you an idea on how rough and tough it was to live in the mining towns, and how they survived in such conditions.
Then, further north, you will hit the town of Greymouth. This town is named after the Grey River that runs on one end of the town. This is the biggest town in the West Coast. It’s claim to fame is the Monteith’s brewery, which makes the various Monteith’s beer. It’s one of my favourite beers from New Zealand, and offers a great range of beers depending on the season.
Punakaiki and Westport
Once you go further north on the West Coast Highway, you will reach a town called Punakaiki. This town is known for its Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. These are rock formations along the coastline that were formed through millions of years of fossilisation. They’re called Pancake Rocks because of the formations looking like stacks of pancakes layering on top of each other. The blowholes are great to see when the tide is high, as this is when the water shoots right up from the holes on some of the rock formations. Along the way, you will also notice some palm-looking tree around. They are called Nikau palm, and they thrive due to the semi-subtropical climate that this area has.
Finally, at the other end of the West Coast is another major town called Westport. This is a mining town, due to its proximity to the coal mines around the area. There isn’t much to this town, except that this is close to the Buller Gorge, which is one great area to look at. Every February, they have the Buller Marathon, which starts in Buller and finishes at Westport. This is perhaps the biggest event in the town’s calendar, and that was also the only time I visited this town.
My next post will take you to the Otago region, on the eastern side of the South Island. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post!
Til the next Fabulous Journey!
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
