West Coast - Untamed wilderness

The West Coast gave itself the subtitle "Untamed Wilderness". And it really suits because there's no cellphone service almost the whole way and endless walks, hikes and tramping tracks into the backcountry. For our trip further north we rented a kayak for a great price at Lake Mahinapua. The scenery looked amazing on the pictures but unfortunately it started raining heavily just after a couple of minutes on the water. So that's why it was so cheap ;) But we paid for it, so we kept going for two hours with a short brake on a recreation area. We were completely trenched by the time we got back to the dock. It was great fun even though we couldn't see very far.
After a short stop in Hokitika we continued further North to Greymouth, the largest town along the West Coast. There we had our first proper resupply since leaving Queenstown, charged our devices. Besides that there wasn't much to do... Some smaller walks in the town and that's it basically.

The highlight on the West Coast are the Pancake rocks and blowholes in Punakaiki. A lovely situated series of cliffs along a short stretch of walks. Besides that there was a short walk to a hidden beach and a cave tour. We even got to see some glowworms in the cave. You really get a full program here with easy effort...

Overall we loved the scenery on the West Coast with the rough winds and sea, diverse landscapes and nature's wonders.Read more