The West Coast

Feeling better again we drove to the west coast, starting at Westport, where we took a detour out to Cape Foulwind where there is a seal colony. Although we were quite distracted by the crashing waves on the coast we did get to see some seals lazing on rocks at the bottom of the cliffs, complete with young seals playing in the rock pools.

From there we went on to Karamea for the night, using it as a base to go to the Oparara Basin the next day to see the limestone arches and caves. It took us a while to get there though, as we had to pull an unfortunate American out of a ditch on the way there. The road up to the arches is one of the New Zealand speciality dirt roads, steep, windy and narrow. The American met two other tourists on the road and slipped into the ditch as they passed each other. A few minutes after we arrived on the scene a couple of climbers drove up, later followed by a couple in a four wheel drive. With the mix of us providing a rope, knots agreed on between Sean and the climbers, and the power of the 4WD we got the car out without a single scratch!

The arches and caves were pretty cool. One of them is called Moria Gate Arch, so of course we went to see if the Mines of Moria were there too (no, they weren’t). However, as usual, we got a bit distracted from the arches by the water flowing under the arches. The Oparara River rose by over 400mm while we were looking at the arches. When we checked the whitewater guidebook later and it turned out that the river had gone from below the lowest run-able level to above the highest run-able level in just 20 minutes while we watched! It’s amazing how fast rivers can change in this country.

We found ourselves an interesting little campsite in Seddonville for the night. It’s a quiet area and we only found the campsite by following a few signposts. When we got there the place was deserted, everything was open, and there was a note on the door sending newcomers up to the local pub to check in. We found the landlady there and she just told us to make ourselves at home. We had to go looking for her the next morning to give her money for our lodgings she was so relaxed. Another great place to stay! Quite different to the regimental attitudes of some other campsites here.

Before we got back to Westport we stopped off in the ghost coalmining town of Denniston. It turned out to be a very interesting spot with plenty of information about the mines and all that went on while the town was flourishing as the largest producer of coal in New Zealand. Particularly interesting was the Denniston Incline, an engineering feat for its time, whereby the coal trucks were hauled up and down the side of the mountain at a gradient of one in one in places (which is really steep to you and me). There were a good few deaths caused by runaway trucks over the years. We had actually gone up there to do some mountain biking as there are a few good tracks around. We tried out an intermediate track, which was so hard it even pushed Sean’s limits, but it was fun, once I was happily back in the van and out of the rain!

After spending the night in Westport we continued our trip south, stopping in Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. By good luck we arrived just before high tide when the blowholes are at their most explosive. Some day I’ll get pics up on the web so you can see them! They’re well worth the visit.

Further south, we met up with John the Swede again in Hokitika, along with Malin, a Swedish girl visiting for a couple of weeks. Malin had never paddled before coming over, so with just a flat-water lesson from John under her belt we all set off to do the Lower Whitcombe from the normal get out down. Malin did so well we carried on to the Milltown Gorge section of the Lower Arahura. For the latter river we met up with some American friends we had paddled with in Murchison. They had arrived at the get on a bit before us and had started hiking further upstream. When they saw us arrive they got on the water above us. Although we went as slowly downstream as we could they never caught up with us and it was nearly dark when we got off the river. After waiting for them to arrive and doing the shuttle to pick up the cars left at the start we weren’t home for dinner until 11.10pm! Fortunately the campsite staff had left the kitchen open for us to cook our dinner, as there’s no hope of getting dinner out, or a take-away, that late at night anywhere in New Zealand bar the cities! It was a fun days paddling though, and Malin paddled really well. She was totally wrecked the next day though!