The West Coast
We spent two days driving up the West Coast of the South Island. Starting from our buggy campsite at Lake Paringa, it was about 70 km/1 hour to Fox Glacier. Unfortunately, Fox Glacier is only viewable via a helicopter flight, so we didn’t see it, but there is a fabulous hike nearby.
Lake Matheson is not a lengthy or strenuous hike, but it does have fabulous views of the west side of Aoraki/Mt. Cook on a clear day. At the right moment, there can be a perfect reflection on the lake.
In addition to the stunning views, the forest was full of tree ferns and moss, so it was really enjoyable to walk through.
After our hike, we continued to Franz Josef and stopped for some lunch and afterward we drove to the Franz Josef Glacier Walk. It turned out the trail was quite short, since much of it has been closed due to safety concerns. We got a glimpse of the glacier and then turned around. We also walked to Peter’s Pool, a small pool that sometimes has a mountain reflection.
And then we continued driving north, originally we planned to camp at Otto McDonald’s Campsite, very close to Franz Josef, but it was still early, so we kept going to Lake Mahinapua DOC Campsite near Hokitika. The campground was pretty good sized with two large grassy areas to park in and there was running water with flush toilets and cold (free) showers, however, the water was not potable. And the bugs were not terrible.
Because we wanted to see kiwi, we started the next day at the National Kiwi Centre in Hokitika, where we got to feed the freshwater eels and see two kiwi. The eels are very large and are found in all freshwater lakes in New Zealand except for Lake Taupo. The kiwi were bigger than I expected them to be and we watched them run around in the near dark for awhile.
We had about 5 hours/365km of driving for the day. The first 100 km or so was on The Great Coast Road and was super scenic with great views over the ocean and we kept wanting to stop to take in the view, but we had to keep moving.
The other stop we made was in Punakaiki at the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, which are part of Paparoa National Park. It’s a short loop walk to see the interesting rocks and mesmerizing waves.
Paparoa NP had some other interesting looking hikes and I would not have minded spending longer in the area, but we didn’t have the time.
After Charleston, the road turns eastward and gets very curvy all the way to Marahau, our destination for the night. We camped at Marahau Beach Camp, which felt a bit fancy after our many DOC campgrounds, with a kitchen, drinkable water, and coin operated showers and laundry.
We were in a bit of a daze when we arrived after the long drive on the windy roads, so after we settled into our campsite, we were happy to go across the street to Hooked on Marahau for dinner. Despite not having a booking, we were able to find a table and dinner was very pleasant. We started with a Fijian ceviche and then had grilled fish with quinoa and fish and chips.
