NZ - West Coast

After a couple of days in Christchurch we took the 'Tranzalpine' train through the Southern Alps to the west coast of the South Island. This can be a very scenic route but as the weather was overcast we didn't see it at its best.

This photo was taken in the dry east-coast side of the mountains.




The west coast is a special place. It is much wetter than the east coast and consequently mainly covered by sub-tropical rain-forest. It also has a rugged coastline battered by westerly winds. The next day we drove up the coast from Greymouth to the nature reserve at Punakaiki and had a picnic lunch. We were lucky to have beautiful dry weather.








This is the coast just north of Punakaiki.




Hannah with Mum at our picnic. (Hannah is asking Mum where the plates and cutlery are).




This is Hannah entertaining my Dad with her Winston Churchill impression at our motel in Greymouth. The 'cigar' is actually a hard wheat biscuit for ther to chew to help with the discomfort of teething. One of many helpful suggestions from my Mum.


The west cost is now the most sparsely populated part of New Zealand with only 40,000 people in its biggest town Greymouth. But 140 years ago it was the scene of a gold rush and some of our ancestors worked in these goldfields. This is Kumara c.1880s with the town fitting in among piles of tailings from the diggings, and the hills being stripped of wood.


Most of the goldrush towns were long ago been reclaimed by the bush. But some of the buildings and equipment has been preserved and brought together in a heritage park called 'Shantytown'.



I was very interested to see the watchmakers, tailors, tinsmiths workshops, and the sawmill because some of our relatives had worked in these trades after they arrived in NZ in the 1800s. In particular John Hannah (my grandfather's grandfather's brother) was a watchmaker in the town of Kumara a few miles south of Shantytown. Newspaper reports suggest he was a member of the town volunteer fire brigade, so it was great to see the old fire station and old manual fire-engines.


Shantytown also has a functioning steam railway and we could take a ride for a short-distance into the bush.


This is a 'Weka' which is a native flightless bird that used to be very common in the bush.


After 2 days on the coast we drove back east across the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass National Park. We had another beautiful day and could appreciate the mountain valleys and native bush. Along the way we visited Kumara and had morning tea at its one remaining shop.



This is the view from the Otira highway on the west coast looking east up the Otira valley towards the Main Divide.




This is the view from further up the Otira Valley just below Arthur's Pass.