A journey to the West Coast - Arthurs Pass to Hokitika
Arthurs Pass traverses its way through the mountain ranges of the Southern Alps in the middle of the South Island. Named after Arthur Dudley Dobson, who was the first European to escort a party through the area, it is a drive that requires you to have your camera at the ready. My first port of call was the small settlement of Sheffield. Sheffield is home to an amazing pie shop - one that is world famous around Canterbury! Each day they serve up a vast array of sweet and savoury pies and stopping for one is kind of a compulsion for anyone in the know. I bought my vegetarian pie (yes I know but I love my veggies, although the chicken pies are also pretty tasty) complete with a nanna slice (chocolate heaven) for afterwards and headed on my way. The scenery on this, the Eastern side of the Alps, is tussock grasses, oddly shaped rocks (Castle Rock is an excellent stopping point) glistening lakes brimming with trout, expansive braided rivers and sharp mountain edges. Numerous gravel tracks lead off the highway to various tramping tracks and ski resorts in winter. Everything is so immense it causes you to catch your breath.
Top Tip: stop at Arthurs Pass Village - it’s not only great for a refreshment break (the coffee is good), there is also a chance of spotting a Kea - the world’s only Alpine Parrot. I’ve had one approach me and try to pinch my mobile phone whilst I sat outside one of the roadside cafés sipping my coffee. Please don’t feed them though as so many die from being too close to the road or eating the wrong type of food.
As I left Arthurs Pass Village I noticed the scenery begin to change. The rainforest of the West Coast begins to emerge with enormous waterfalls plunging down from mountain edges and road sides covered in a dense assortments of ferns. This is the wet side of the country and the scenery certainly reflects that. Rugged forests climb high up the mountain edges. Arthurs Pass finishes at Kumara Junction where I joined State Highway 6 - the only road to be found up and down the West Coast. I was heading to Hokitika but first my journey took me through farmland towards Lake Kaniere. Even on a misty overcast day this lake is something else. It’s setting is sublime, with rainforest edging its shore and the peaks of the Southern Alps looming above. The lake is a mecca for watersport but I enjoyed wandering some of the tracks nearby. A loop walk took me through a Kahikatea forest and past a small stream. Weka (a native bird which looks a bit like a kiwi only it is active during the daytime and doesn’t have quite as long a beak) came and approached me as a I ate my pie at the lakeside.
I drove around the lakeside until the road zig zagged it’s way through farmland to Hokitika Gorge. Up ahead the weather had cleared and I could just about make out the peak of Aoraki/Mt Cook, New Zealand’s largest mountain. Hokitika Gorge is a real feature of this area - a place where the glacial rock salt has caused the water to look such a vivid blue it appears as though dye has been poured into it. I tried to take a picture from the viewing platform overlooking the gorge but couldn’t really do it justice. A pleasant board walk took me out to a swing bridge across the river - holding on to your bags and cameras here is a must as with a couple of people on it the bridge really does swing! On the other side the walk continued through untouched bush and I was serenaded by fantails and bellbirds. There is a spot where you can clamber down onto rocks and actually reach the rivers edge if you so wish.
That evening I headed back into Hokitika Town. Please see my next blog for the Hokitika and Pancake Rocks road trip weekend adventure.