The Rugged West Coast.

 The Rugged West Coast

The wild West Coast at Westport

WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH 2025 - FRIDAY 21 MARCH 2025 (Happy 45th Anniversary Vicki and Lance!)

Setting off from Murchison and heading towards Westport meant we would be travelling on State Highway 6 through the sensational Buller Gorge. We followed the Buller River, meandering through glades of native trees, green vegetation and stunning river bank scenes. Once again, hats off to the early settlers who forged this road to the coast, especially when they got to Hawks Crag which is still a one lane road that was blasted through the granite rock!!

Eventually we hung a left onto Highway 67 and headed to Westport. After re-stocking at New World we headed to the NZMCA (New Zealand Motor Caravan Association) Park, right beside the beach, for two days. This is where we found the real Westport Gold!. 

At 98, Noel was born and bred in Westport and knew a LOT about This little part of New Zealand even though he had spent some time living at the bottom of the North Island. Noel takes it upon himself to share his knowledge with NZMCA members who stop at this camp. He rocked up to our motorhome with his bag of photographs, recent and historic, and talked us through what we could do in the area and all of its history. His knowledge and enthusiasm for all things about the Northern West Coast was infectious and we were so grateful for the hour or so of his time that he gave us. This kind of Westport Gold continued the next day when we stopped at the Criterion Pub for lunch. Two of the locals, Pete and Tony, just rocked up to us and started chatting. I’m sure these folks see quite a few tourists but it was so cool to find such friendly people - even after we said we were from Auckland!

We really liked Westport, it has most things you need in a town and everyone was super friendly. While we were here we did beach walks, explored the town and did small parts of the Kawatiri Coastal Bike Trail. It is definitely time to mention our fellow Kiwis, the Weka! OMG these birds are everywhere in this neck of the woods and they are SUPER cheeky. If you turned your back for two seconds they had invited themselves into the motorhome. Their favourite thing was to hop onto the barbecue table and help themselves to the fat in the drip tray! Dave also discovered that they were a bit partial to socks, especially if they were left tucked into shoes that were left outside overnight!

We had heard from HEAPs of different sources that we needed to head North from Westport to Gentle Annie Point and stay at Gentle Annie Seaside Accommodation and Camping Ground. We are quickly learning on this trip that you don’t ignore this kind of advice. The trip from Westport to Gentle Annie was easy….except the last 2 kms which is gravel and one way. The best tip we got was to pull into one of the passing bays and if nothing was coming just go for it! 

Gentle Annie must be one of the best campgrounds in New Zealand (I believe it is currently number 3). It is right at the mouth of the Mokihinui River as it races out to the Tasman Sea. When we arrived we went for a walk along the beach and met a guy who had just caught a 2 mtr Seven Gill Shark, off the beach and really close to the beach! Okay, so swimming was suddenly not a priority. We saw quite a few people fishing using spinners off the beach and decided that we would give that a go the next morning.

We got down to the beach a bit earlier than most and thought we had the timing wrong but as we both caught a decent Kahawai each, figured we were spot on.

With dinner sorted we headed back to the Beast just as everyone else was arriving with their fishing gear. 

Gentle Annie has some easy walks you can do from the camp to waterfalls, mazes and back to the sea. It also has these really quirky showers and toilets, not to mention super friendly, helpful staff. The absolute icing on the cake for us, though, was catching up with two VERY dear friends from Canberra. Sue and Darryl Montgomery were here to do the Queen Charlotte track. They hired a motorhome and had driven a long way to catch up with us on the West Coast. They chose a very wet day to drive to Gentle Annie but we had the most amazing afternoon and evening catching up.

I started work with Sue in 1977 at Medical Laboratory and it was Sue who introduced me to Dave and his mates. The years just fell away as we updated each other on family and experiences. Luckily the sun did come out the next morning and after a quick walk along the beach it was time to say farewell as Sue and Darryl headed South to Punikaiki and Dave and I headed North to Karamea.

To get to Karamea we needed to go over the Karamea Bluff….and yet another road that involves going up and up and up and then down and down and down with one lane bridges, road works and hairpin bends thrown in for good measure. Now, I don’t know about you but I had never heard of Karamea before and really we only headed here on the advice of 98 year old Noel. To get to Karamea we passed through a town called Granity. This area of New Zealand is literally made of Granite so what really amazed us was it has taken this long to find a place called Granity. Most notably, it boasts a spectacular theatre - for any of my acting friends!

We decided to stay at Karamea Memorial Domain Campground which was close to the Four Square and the pub! The caretaker helped us hire a car as we wanted to head off on an adventure on a road that had a height restriction of 2.8 mtrs, and that is way shorter than the Beast!

We contacted Karamea Motors and instantly knew we were not in Auckland anymore! The owner, Phil, drove the Rav4 out to the campsite the day before we needed it and picked Dave up so he could get a lift back to his depot. For $100 we got the use of the car for the day, the insurance, the petrol AND Phil would pick it up from the campsite whenever we were finished with it AND we didn’t have to give any credit card details. (We even heard him say to another couple, “Just get the cash out from the pub and leave it in the glove box for me!!). Talk about a high trust model!

Noel had told us about the Oparara Arches and Caves and this is where we were heading in the hire car. 

He had also mentioned that we would need to travel along an old, 16 km mining road to reach our destination. This road had the trifecta plus one - it was steep, windy, metalled AND one way! Honestly, I feel like I have swallowed so many glasses of cement on this trip but this one was so, so worth it!

We have often been to caves where we have felt a little under whelmed but at Oparara we were amazed. Having never heard of Karamea or Oparara this trip has quickly catapulted itself to the top of our best excursion list. The bush walks, the cave, the arches, and the information boards were all brilliant - we even got to see a female Blue Duck or Whio, one of New Zealand's endangered species. Unfortunately we don’t have a photo to prove this as she sort of just looked like one of the boulders she was swimming past. Normally I would make a few collage photos after visiting somewhere tourist-y but I am going to close this post with a photo dump of Oparara Arches and Caves - enjoy!