New Zealand Guide
The West Coast
The Southern Alps run down the backbone of the South Island, both defining and isolating the West Coast. A narrow, rugged and largely untamed strip 400km long and barely 30km wide, it is home to just 32,000 people. Turbulent rivers cascade out of the mountains though lush bushland and past crystal lakes before spilling out into the Tasman Sea, its coastline fringed by astonishing surf-pounded beaches and backed by the odd tiny shack or, more frequently, nothing at all.
What really sets "the Coast" apart is the interaction of settlers with their environment. Coasters, many descended from early gold and coal miners, have long been proud of their ability to coexist with the landscape – a trait mythologized in their reputation for independent-mindedness and intemperate beer-drinking, perhaps fuelled by Irish migrants drawn to the 1860s gold rushes. Stories abound of late-night drinking sessions way past closing time, and your fondest memories of the West Coast might be chance encounters in the pub.
No discussion of the West Coast would be complete without mention of the torrential rain, which falls with tropical intensity for days at a time; every rock springs a waterfall and the bush becomes vibrant with colour. Such soakings have a detrimental effect on the soil, retarding decomposition and producing a peat-like top layer with all the minerals leached out. The result is pakihi, scrubby, impoverished and poor-looking paddocks that characterize much of the West Coast's cleared land. But the abundant sunshine that alternates with the downpours produces excellent conditions for marijuana cultivation, a significant component of the local economy. Enthusiasm for dope-growing is matched only by the springtime rush to catch whitebait, when fishers line the tidal riverbanks on rising tides trying to net this epicurean holy grail.
Highlights
1 Oparara Basin Set a day aside to explore caves harbouring moa bones, vast limestone arches and placid streams that are great for cooling off.
2 Pancake Rocks This geological curiosity is gorgeous, at any time but especially spectacular when high seas set the blowholes into action.
3 Heli-rafting The West Coast offers rafting down some of New Zealand's finest wild rivers, made all the more enticing by a helicopter flight into the headwaters.
4 Fox glacier Hiking out onto the glacier is an awe-inspiring experience, surpassed only by a helicopter ride up to its back and a hike along it.