After Mt. Cook and Mt Aspiring we headed for the coast and made our way up the famed West Coast of New Zealand.
Our first stop was in Haast where we stopped at a small cafe and tried a whitebait sandwich. Whitebaiting is quite popular here and the whitebait sandwich is one of those local foodstuffs we had to try. Whitebait are like fish larva and they are generally served up in a egg patty. The sandwich is just the patty on some white bread. It was good but mostly just tasted like an egg sandwich, so it was a bit disappointing. That's about all there was to do in Haast so we headed up the coast pretty quickly.
 |
|
The first thing we noticed about the West Coast is the sandflies. Man, these little buggers are a nuisance! They are everywhere here and their bites are far more annoying to us than mosquitoes in that they itch like crazy for a long time. Over the course of our time in New Zealand we got a bit better at avoiding them, but they make some otherwise beautiful spots quite simply unbearable. We found a nice spot to camp on the beach that night and the one thing that makes the sandflies a bit easier for camping than mosquitoes is the fact that they go away after dark.
 |
|
In the morning we made our way to the glacier country. First we went to Fox Glacier and hiked the short walk to face of the glacier then to the Franz Josef. They were very nice, but after the glaciers of Patagonia, these were a bit of a let down. There were massive crowds and many people get guided walks on the ice, but we opted not to do this as it was pretty expensive. The short walks were good for getting out of the van and stretching the legs and the cool thing about these glaciers is that they literally run down the valley through rainforest. The waterfalls of the valleys were quite impressive as well.
 |
|
 |
|
Many of the stops along the West Coast are quick little trails that run to the sights. We would stop do the quick walk and see the sights and be back in the van to move on pretty quickly. This meant that we spent far less time on the West Coast than we had initially anticipated. We saw the Pancake Rocks as well. All of these sights are quite spectacular though and we were glad to have made the trip.
 |
|
Eventually we made our way up to the literal end of the road in Karamea. There we did the first leg of the Heaphy Track, another one of New Zealand's "Great Walks." This one starts at an estuary that was by far the worst place for sandflies we have been so we got moving quickly. The sandflies don't seem able to find you if you are moving, but stop for a second and they swarm. The trail was incredibly beautiful, winding through rainforest, over rivers and by waterfalls until you arrive at Scott's beach. The trail hugs the beach and then eventually heads back into the rainforest to the Heaphy Hut. We didn't make it that far, but we did enjoy about an hour on a gorgeous and totally unoccupied beach just watching the waves crash against the rocks.
 |
|
That night we went up to an area near some limestone arches and caves and camped for the night. We ventured into both Box Canyon Cave and Crazy Paving Cave. Neither of these caves are very deep, but there are some beautiful glow worm displays to be seen inside.
As we camped, we had more visits from wekas. Wekas were common visitors to our campsites on the West Coast. Wekas are wood hens that are very curious and obviously are looking for us to give them some food. We, of course, didn't give them any, but that didn't stop them from approaching and even trying to climb into our van.
 |
|
The next morning we hiked up to the limestone Oparara Arch for a quick look before leaving the West Coast for Nelson. We had hoped to do some sea kayaking in Abel Tasman, one of the most popular of New Zealand's National Parks, but we opted to save our money for sea kayaking in Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. Nelson was a very cool town that actually has "mostly fine" weather which was nice for a change. We wandered around town and pulled the trigger on a small iPod speaker as we were going a little nuts without music in the van. We went to the Founder’s Brewery that was a cool old place in a historic village in the park. We sat and tried their beers and then grabbed a two liter bottle to go. But don’t call it a “growler” as we do in the States. I’ll let you Google that one!
The West Coast was certainly beautiful and nice scenic drive for a few days!
No comments:
Post a Comment