Spectacular West Coast of the South Island

A common question we are getting asked is about the weather. The North Island has seen terrible rain storms and cyclone Gabrielle. The opposite is happening here on the South Island. It is normally wet where we are currently, along the west coast and Fjordland, but the weather has been dry and spectacular. The South Island forecast continues to show minimal rain for the next week and beyond. We hope the folks on the North Island can recover quickly where there has been devastating loss of lives, homes, businesses, and infrastructure.

Nelson

We spent four nights in Nelson, and it was not nearly enough for all there is to do in the region. February 6th was Waitangi Day (a national holiday commemorating the treaty signed between the English and Māori). Since most businesses were closed we decided to e-bike part of the 175km Great Taste Bike Trail from Nelson to Mapua (30 miles round trip), with a stop on Rabbit Island for swimming. Lots of families were at the beach enjoying the day. We took the bike ferry to Mapua and explored the fun art galleries. What we did not consider was that e-bikes saved our legs from getting tired, but not our butts from getting sore on the bumpy, gravel bike path. (We don’t ride very often and don’t have padded bike shorts with us.)

The next day we took an Aqua Taxi out to Able Tasmin National Park. There is a phenomenal 4 day hike along the coast here, but we only hiked the segment from Torrent Bay to Bark Bay which took a few hours. At Bark Bay we enjoyed swimming in a “lazy river” created by the outgoing tide from an estuary. It was a beautiful hike with spectacular views of Tasman Bay and great to relax on Bark Bay Beach.

We had amazing sunset views over Able Tasman National Park from our rental in Nelson.

From Nelson we drove to Westport. We stopped at Nelson Lakes National Park, had lunch, and hiked. We learned about a scale insect that lives in the bark of the beach tree and eats the tree sap then poops out a drop of sugar (found at the end of the insect’s tail) that is edible called honeydew, yummy! There were also freshwater eels swimming under the dock. While we were there some high school seniors were learning to SUP (stand up paddleboard) and kayak in the cold lake and build survival shelters. It was fun to watch them turtle their kayaks and play games jumping from SUP to SUP.

We drove through the spectacular Buller Gorge to get to the west coast. At some sections, the two way road got very narrow as it went through a cut in the rock.

The West Coast

Our first stop along the west coast was Westport. We hiked around Cape Foulwind and then went for sunset at Tauranga Bay Beach.

Then we drove to Hokitika with a stop at Pancake Rocks along the way. The peninsula has dramatic wave action, blowholes, and rock formations. It was spectacular.

Can you see the faces in the rocks?

We stayed at a B&B near Hokitika. We hiked the Hokitika Gorge which is fed by turquoise glacier water. The water was incredibly cold.

In Hokitika they have an annual driftwood sculpture contest since so much driftwood washes up on the beach. Here are a couple examples.

We stayed at Awatuna Sunset Lodge near Hokitika that had the best breakfasts, dinners (the lamb shank was incredible), views of the ocean, and a fun ride across a river in an Argo (amphibious vehicle) to the beach. The hosts were awesome and it was one of our best stays so far.

From here we head down to glacier country, but that is for the next blog.