When one thinks of the West Coast, visions of rugged and dramatic hills, acres of
rainforest and spectacular surf spring to mind, but from Greymouth to Westport the
scenery also has an almost tropical appeal with nikau palms sprouting from glistening
white sands and clinging to rocky escarpments. In Punakaiki, a friendly holiday
town made famous by its stunning pancake rocks, salty spray flies from blowholes,
while nearby Westport, a town often overlooked, provides many unique activities
for the intrepid traveller. Inland, avid anglers have the opportunity to try their
luck on the internationally renowned waters of the Murchison / Nelson Lakes region,
where some of the best flyfishing in NZ can be found on Lake Rotoroa, Lake Rotoiti,
and up the Travers, D’Urville and Sabine Rivers. We spend three days driving the
scenic route from Greymouth to Nelson. We visit a world renowned pounamu (jade)
sculptor, admire Punakaiki’s pancake rocks, ride rapids aboard jet skis in Westport,
enjoy indigenous cuisine, join a thrilling whitewater rafting expedition down the
mighty Buller River, and angle for elusive brown trout!
day one: greymouth to westport, via punakaiki
Key
- Destinations
- Apex Locations
Overnight Bob’s been doing his research on the famous pancake rocks in Punakaiki
and he’s keen to get on the road. But first we call into the acclaimed Jade Boulder
Gallery, a museum that tells the story of this precious stone, known to the Maori
as pounamu. There’s lots to see including a range of unique sculpture and jewellery
designed and handcrafted by Ian Boustridge and his team of master carvers; some
of the pieces took over a year to design and sculpt. At the entrance we marvel over
a five-ton jade boulder – the largest to be recovered in the Southern Hemisphere.
Bob places his hands on its smooth, cool surface like an alternative healer extracting
its energy and then we meet Ian (named as one of the top five jade sculptors in
the world by the National Geographic Society) in his studio where he’s busy working
on a new piece.
“I guess my passion for jade began when I was about 17 years old,” Ian tells us,
“I used to collect the stone and carve it in my grandmother’s chook-house.” Today,
some thirty years later, collectors worldwide covet his work.
We drive north to Rapahoe where the road joins the coast and offers fabulous views
of rugged hills, dramatic headlands and rolling surf. From Barrytown the landscape
changes: coastal plains dotted with nikau palms are flanked by bush-clad hills.
More palms cling obstinately to the layered rock escarpments in Punakaiki, creating
a tropical backdrop to the green-blue sea. “It’s got a Hawaiian feel!” says Bob
as we park the car and walk the Dept. of Conservation track to the blowholes at
Punakaiki’s famous pancake rocks. The timing couldn’t be more perfect: it’s high
tide and there’s a good ocean swell so salt-laden spray is flying. Bob gets some
great shots and then after lunch at Punakaiki Tavern we walk along the beach and
collect pieces of perfectly polished, purewhite quartz.
There are several good hikes in the area including the Pororari River Track, the
Truman Track, Fox River Cave Walk, Cave Creek/Kotihotiho Walk and the Punakaiki-Pororari
Loop, but our legs have been stretched, and so we continue north. On the outskirts
of Punakaiki we visit the Te Miko Glass Bead Studio, where we watch Carolyn Hewlett
as she crafts each individual flame-worked bead, before we drive to Westport and
join a unique jet-ski tour with Xtreme Adventures on the lower reaches of the Buller
River...
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