Westport Wanderings

Wandering around Westport today enjoying the Autumn sunshine and a break from the heavy rain of yesterday. Last couple of days I have been sorting out my house and battening down the hatches prior to my departure. Also got out today to enjoy this small town on the wild west coast of New Zealand that I have called home for these last 3 years, and no doubt many more into the future.

http://westport.nz/

Its a mining town built on gold and coal and still has that affluent vibe, despite its recent decline as it’s coal becomes too uneconomic to mine in our globalised world. For me it’s ideally located on the stunning West Coast with magical Karamea to the North and Punakaiki and Greymouth to the South an easy 90 minute drive on one of the worlds most spectacular coast roads.

It also has a small airport and Wellington is only a 45 minute flight away on a little 9 seater plane. The Pilatus PC12 is actually a pretty amazing plane which is flown by the Australian Flying Doctors and the US Special Forces because of its legendary reliability and its ability to take off and land just about anywhere and fly in any weather. It needs to here, doing the Westport to Wellington run, and its almost always a pretty bumpy ride. But, hey, I like roller coasters and I have always felt 100% safe in the hands of Sounds Air. Westport sits at the mouth of the mighty Buller River and has the river, beaches, lagoons and a busy fishing harbour.

A stroll down to the harbour takes me to the newly built walkway out over the wetlands and lagoons, past the Lost Lagoon and to the Shingle Beach, which is actually inland somewhat from the river mouth. The river and the harbour has always accommodated some pretty large ships but the last of these, the big cement bulk carriers, recently departed after the nearby Cement Works closed. I noticed one of them - The Westport - was sold and renamed and now plies the North Sea and between Copenhagen and Malmo as the Fjordvik. Strange to think I watched it sail past my house not long ago and now its on the other side of the world.

https://photos.marinetraffic.com/ais/showphoto.…

Soon I too will be on the other side of the world too; blogging from Japan, England, Scotland, Iceland, Morocco and Greece.... stay tuned :-)Read more