Travel West Coast

FORCE OF NATURE

If you’re yearning for a break from the city to recharge and reconnect with the great outdoors, take a leisurely trip down the West Coast, to .

STORY MATT PHILP Travel West Coast

IT’S GOT WEATHER, the West Coast, and This was a dangerous workplace in a harsh lighthouse and a fur seal breeding colony a wildness to match anything that gets thrown setting – a windswept plateau 600m above at Tauranga Bay. its way by the Tasman. Head south down the the coast. Visiting is an experience best It’s also a bird-watcher’s paradise, with Great Coast Road, listed among Lonely served cold, ideally with black raincloud nearby Wall Island one of the Coast’s most Planet’s top coastal drives, and marvel at just overhead – exemplary Coast weather for a important seabird colonies. From the how much drama is packed into this long, legendary West Coast location. clifftop, you’ll see Hitchcockian levels of bird narrow piece of country, with its towering action, with prions, terns, red-billed and limestone bluffs, pounding surf and prolific, black-backed gulls, skuas, gannets and more. primeval rainforest. There’s dramatic history West of Westport lies Cape Foulwind, so here, too, all of it worth exploring. So, set your named by Cook because its prevailing NILE RIVER VALLEY windscreen wipers to staccato, and go west. westerlies blew the Endeavour off course. The Nile River Valley is a striking introduction Wind, then, is anticipated. But what you to West Coast karst (a type of rock formation) DENNISTON don’t expect is the spot said to be the country, with its towering striated cliffs and It was known as the Westport Coal Company’s Coast’s only safe swimming beach – Carters primeval rainforest. What lies beneath is “burning star”, a reference to the quality of Beach, tucked sweetly in the lee of the cape. arguably even more spectacular. Described coal produced by the Drive on and you reach the northern as a “calcite paradise”, the Nile River cave operation. It did quantity, too, more than end of the 3.4km Cape Foulwind Walkway, system winds through a series of chambers, 10 million tonnes mined between 1879 named one of ’s best Short some snug, others hall-like and strung with and 1967, all of it sent down the famously Walks because of its scenery and the fact extravagant calcified formations, that precipitous Denniston Incline in wagons. it takes in both a heritage-listed 1920s descend to a subterranean river. You can’t explore the system without a This page from top: guide, and the go-to guides are Underworld Cape Foulwind; the Adventures, based in nearby Charleston lighthouse at Cape (caverafting.com). The pick of its tours starts Foulwind. Opposite with a rainforest train and concludes with page: . Previous pages: you floating into daylight on an inner tube. Pancake Rocks, . THE GREAT COAST ROAD The stretch of State Highway 6 between Westport and has been branded the Great Coast Road, but it’s the section immediately north of Punakaiki that really earns superlatives. This is one of New Zealand’s most thrilling drives, tracing the route taken by the Coast’s earliest European explorers, hedged by the limestone bluffs on one side and the Tasman on the other.

56 Kia Ora Travel West Coast

PUNAKAIKI Punakaiki is synonymous with the Pancake Rocks – and for good reason. Sculpted into pancake-like stacks, the limestone formations at Dolomite Point are geological eye candy of the first order. The blowholes aren’t bad, either. Visit at high tide and you’ll see a display of pure oceanic power as the sea surges in and is forced upwards, blasting the air with an arresting whoosh. Sunsets from the viewing platform can be equally spectacular. Punakaiki is also the gateway to the , 30,000-odd hectares of wall-to-wall native vegetation in the heart of karst country. This exceptionally lush belt will span New Zealand’s latest Great Walk (doc.govt.nz/greatwalks), the 55km, shared- use Paparoa Track, scheduled to open in October this year. It will traverse the Paparoa Range between Punakaiki and near Blackball to the south. You can get a taste of what the park offers Adventures (onyerbike.co.nz), has a motto The first Great Walk designed to be used from just north of Punakaiki, where the “the wetter the better”, and offers guided by both mountain bikers and walkers, it beautiful Pororari River reaches the self-drive off-road quad-bike and buggy will include alpine tops, karst landscapes, Tasman. One option is to hike the three- adventures on 60ha of bush-clad land near mixed beech podocarp forest and nīkau- hour Pororari River Track, following the Greymouth. With tours such as the Bush ‘n’ dominated coastal bush, and offer views of river inland, then south on the Inland Pack Bog you can expect mud, but the operator the Alps and coast. The region’s native Track to Punakaiki village. provides coats, boots and everything else wildlife will also receive a boost over the For a more laid-back and, frankly, dreamy you need to keep dry. coming years as Air New Zealand experience, hire a kayak from Jeanette Speaking of getting on yer bike, works together with the Department of Ashby and Ken Ririe at Punakaiki Canoes Greymouth is the northern trailhead for the Conservation to nurture bird life and other (riverkayaking.co.nz) and paddle up river. acclaimed four-day West Coast Wilderness key species along the route. From the middle of the slow-moving Trail (westcoastwildernesstrail.co.nz), At the track’s midway point it will link to waterway, you get a better sense of the which incorporates 135km of off-road the Pike29 Memorial Track, which was dramatic heft of the landscape, another of cycling on well-formed gravel trails. formed to honour those who died in the those otherworldly West Coast limestone 2010 mine disaster. gorges. It’s easy paddling, too. HOKITIKA “We’ve had 90-year-olds,” says Ashby. Pick your moment, and you’ll arrive in “The further you go, the more challenging it Hokitika to see whitebaiters lining the river gets, but if you get to a point where you’re bank, all hoping for a bumper harvest of uncomfortable you can just float back down.” “white gold”. In the 1860s, it was the yellow stuff that drew people here – so many of GREYMOUTH them that, by 1886, Hokitika was not only It has been known to rain on the West Coast, the centre of the West Coast , it so why not cash in? On Yer Bike! Off Road was one of the most populous places in

This page clockwise from top: On Yer Bike! Off Road Adventures; Hokitika; Dorothy Falls at Lake . Opposite: West Coast Treetop Walk.

February 2019 59 westcoast.co.nz beautiful thingin itsown right. knockout, andtheshort bush walk isa sullen place. Whatever theweather, it’s a surroundings, andit’s amoodier, more tones ofitsgraniteandpodocarp the however, when the water hasassimilated too–butinarainforest. here, there’s glacialflourworking itsmagic turquoise ofaMackenzie Country lake – will bowl you over.Gorge Picturethemilky weather andthesightofHokitika Falls on thelake’s easternside. hydro station.Anddon’t misstheDorothy waterway toKennedy Creek, siteofa1907 Race Walkway follows an1875-built swamp. For alongerhike, theKaniere Water forest andback viaaboardwalk throughflax Walk, a10-minuteloopthroughvirgin bush walks. Check outtheKahikatea Forest kahikatea country, withsometerrific short north, butit’s equally gorgeous. Thisis by Lake Brunner, itslarger cousintothe tūīandtheoccasionalkererū. tītapu/bellbirds, certainly spy plenty ofbirds,including flowering native orchids inthetreetops; you’ll ontheseason,youDepending may alsosee tower withviews Alps. totheSouthern canopy ofrimuandkāmahi, andwitha40m suspended 20mabove theforest floorina Visualise 450mofmesh-steel gantry podocarp forest alongsideLake Mahināpua. it’sOpened in2012, sitedinstunning Coast Treetop Walk (treetopsnz.com ). is helpingtorevive thetown’s fortunes. coal andgreenstone,now eco-tourism New Aftertherush Zealand. cameforestry, Travel West Coast 60 KiaOra Encounter thegorge afteradeluge, Strike sunshine afteraperiodofdry tendstobeovershadowed One oftheflagship operationsisthe West WAVE WATCHERS RETREAT Sleep Delicious andgenerousgourmet flat-screen TVs and freewifi. have largeensuitebathrooms, located. The fourelegantroomsall Alps,it’sthe Southern beautifully theHokitikaRiverandbeyondto to jaw-dropping viewsoverbushland Qualmark five-starB&B. With Lodge, theWest Coast’s only Ten minutesfromHokitikaisRimu RIMU LODGE back. wavewatchers.co.nz come have ensuites.You willwantto the deck andseaviews,both The bedroomshaveFrench doorsto well-equipped kitchen andabarbecue. laptopforyouruse,freewifi,Sky,a a yourself awayfromtheview, there’s cottage atPunakaiki. Ifyoucantear a charming two-bedroombeachside coastal thanWave Watchers Retreat, Accommodation doesn’tgetmore Getting there airnewzealand.co.nz 767 737 0800 Holidays Travel Brokers 0800 737 000 Centre Contact

HOKITIKA

rimulodge.co.nz and moreofthosewonderfulviews. Room”, which hasalargeopenfire breakfasts areservedinthe“Great serve whitebaitonapizza. Hokitika. Andyes,they really do Street, try FatRevell PipiPizzasin For acasualmealinlivelysurroundings, FAT PIZZAS PIPI recommended. punakaikiresort.co.nz The beer-batteredfishis Resort. out Jacob’s GrillatthePunakaiki For dinnerwithseaviews,check JACOB’S GRILL pancakerockscafe.com the “worldfamous”pancakestack. but thespecialtydishisindisputably stone-oven pizza,amongotherthings, Cafe servescounterfoodand At Punakaiki, thePancake Rocks PANCAKE CAFE ROCKS Eat with connectionsacrossthe Hokitika fromChristchurch, Air NewZealandoperates daily non-stopflightsto blowholes atPunakaiki. Pancake Rocks and domestic network.

PHOTOGRAPHY LIAM PHILP, TOURISM WEST COAST, PHOTO NZ