South to Rapahoe on one of the Ten Best Coastal Drives in the World

---

While seemingly the rest of the country is being hammered by a strong south-westerly and showers with snow on the Central Plateau, we, on the West Coast of the South Island are bathed in bright sunshine.

With just a short drive today down to Rapahoe, north of Greymouth, we enjoyed another long lie in bed listening to the post election interviews on Newstalk ZB.

Breakfast was again leisurely and this morning we opened the kitchen window a little to ensure that any well fired toast didn’t set the smoke alarm off again.

Our holiday home certainly had all that we needed and we would come back and stay again when we are in this part of the coast again.

The drive into Westport from Waimangaroa was a fairly straight run of 10km except for a railway crossing about half way along the way. At the crossing was a stop/go man to warn us of a diversion around where Fulton Hogan was doing some repairs to the crossing. Resplendent in their orange vests were at least a dozen workers standing around watching a couple of others actually going something. Perhaps this was a training exercise although we shall never know as we kept on going. Further down the road a little a coal train was waiting and perhaps the men standing around on the crossing were figuring out a way to get the train across the ground that had been dug up on the railway crossing.

We needed some cash to pay the holiday home owners and so headed into the main street of Westport expecting to find a Kiwibank ATM.

Every other Bank appeared to have a cash machine but there were no green signs that we could see directing us a Kiwibank ATM.

With mail to post I popped into the Post Office and asked directions to the Kiwibank ATM only to be informed that due to much vandalism of the ATM,Kiwibank had taken out their ATM and the only way to get cash if you area Kiwibank customer was across the counter. I hope they don’t charge us a fee for taking cash out from a teller or they will be getting a blast from us!

We took a stroll of the main street which was made all that much more spectacular with the mighty Mount XXXX with its snow covered peak towering above the town.

We have a penchant for trooping around supermarkets when we are travelling and we weren’t going to miss out in Westport.

Top marks to Lisa who served us as she enquired whether we had a Club card which is a local discount card for New World shoppers. And when we told her we didn’t and that we were out of towners she said ‘no problem, I will get a travellers card for you ‘and applied the discounts on the items we bought saving us another $4.Top marks Lisa,a true helpful and friendly West Coaster,even if she did have a strong South African accent.

We headed out towards Cape Foulwind so named by James Cook because he struck terrible weather here as he was mapping the coast on New Zealand on his circumnavigation.

Here a very friendly weka suddenly appeared as we preparing ourselves for the short walk and followed us to the gate entry to the walkway. He got stopped in his tracks as he couldn’t fit through the gaps in the gate.

The walk took us up to the lighthouse with some great views of the coast.


We had the choice of walking on the seal colony and then having to walk back or returning to the car and driving to the other end of the coastal walkway and a short walk into the seal colony. We opted to drive which certainly made the walking time much less meaning we could save ourselves for more walking at later stops in the day.

There weren’t many seals at the colony but then it was just coming up to the start of the season when they gather back in numbers at the colony.

Driving back out to the main highway and turning right we kept on towards the next planned stop at Punakaiki and the unique features of limestone rock formations that look like pancakes, hence the local attraction is named ‘Pancake Rocks’.

We took a lunch stop in a parking area as we entered Punakaiki and sat listening to the tuis singing and making themselves drunk on the nectar of the kowhai flowers. Very quintessential Kiwi.

The Dept of Conservation have done a great job on this tourist attraction with sealed paths leading through low growing native bush and flax to several lookouts over various parts of the formations and caves that have been formed by the surging Tasman ocean.

There is one particular area called ‘The Blowhole” where the sea flows in under an overhang and crashes up against the rock walls making a booming sound in the right conditions. And although today there was still a good sea running after the strong southwest wind of yesterday the tide was on the way out when we got there meaning the sea surging in wasn’t quite as high and vigorous as it would have been at full tide.

Further on down what Lonely Planet has named as one of the ten best coastal drives in the world there is a monument acknowledging one of the darkest days in New Zealand’s coal mining history in January 1967 when 19 men died in the Strongman Mine explosion.However you have to have your wits about you or you can easily drive by and miss the turning into the car park where the monument is located.

Traffic volumes have now picked up a bit as we approach the Greymouth area which has the greater population on the Coast. But in reality we are still only seeing other cars every kilometre or so.

Our overnight accommodation is at the Beach View Motels in Rapahoe and we reached there just on 3pm and ready for a cup of tea before taking a walk to nearby Point Elizabeth where there more coastal scenery to take in.

A sign at the entry to the walkway said it was 1 hour to the lookout at the tip of the point.

It was a lovely walk through forest on a well formed path that was fairly level for most of the 3.2km.Every so often we came across a tree that had simply been ripped out by the roots presumably during the savage cyclonic storm that hit the coast back in April. It was interesting to note that where there was a tree savaged by the wind there were other trees along side that had not been touched at all.

We cut out the distance of the walk to the lookout 15 minutes within the suggested time of an hour. The scenery was again quite special as we watched the Tasman Sea swell rolling in past the headland and towards the beach in front of the motel we are staying at.

Gretchen set a cracking pace on the return journey despite her dodgy knee. Perhaps it was the thought of a cold beer and cheese and crackers that meant we made the return walk 5 minutes less than the outward journey.

We were back in time to watch the sun sink slowly into the ocean and then the sky turn various shades of orange until darkness finally overcame what little light was left.

An amazing way to end another perfect day on the West Coast.

---

Comments

[Chris]

Club card?
You're obviously not a South Islander. Club Cards are marvellous. Great New World discounts, Fly buys, Air points, only in the South Island. Looks like great weather, hope it lasts. Sure to. See you soon.