Tiki Touring up the West Coast

Saturday 24 October

Spring weather in Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island, seems to be even more erratic than usual this year - storms, floods, tempests, snow, washed out passes through the Southern Alps and more. So our original plans have had to endure a fair bit of revision - we’d hoped to trek up to the end of the road on the West Coast, but this is no longer feasible with the time & weather constraints. Instead we decided to do a tiki tour from Westport, without Banjo, to check out some of the places on our West Coast bucket list.

We’d been told about an abandoned mine near Stockton that we could explore so we paused in Granity for a quick wander and a visit to the local gallery & op shop, then turned up into the hills, along the windiest road, through the "Grand Canyon" (no stopping for fear of rockfalls and landslides!!!) and to the mine. Turned out the Stockton Mine is still operating and you can take an awesome tour for $20 pp so we’ll be doing that with the Fernandi in January, but no epic mine adventuring for us yet. On our way down the wiggly road to the coast I spotted a gushing cascade so we detoured up the aptly named Waterfall Road, which terminated abruptly at an ancient bridge… we took our life in our hands and followed the old road on foot for a few hundred metres to an awesome view point. The water came roaring over the cliff at the top of the hill, then tumbled mellifluously over the rocks by the time it reached us at the dodgy old bridge.

At sea level, we peeked in at the lower section of Stockton Mine, seeing the coal carts suspended like a gondola bringing the black gold down to be processed and shipped out - once a huge operation, I doubt it is super busy these days

Safely back on the coast road, our next stop was Ngakawau & Hector in search of a cheese scone (failed mission - but we did see some funky birdhouses) - and came away instead with some bizarre beach combing treasures (see my metal and driftwood beach art below) - then on to Mokihinui, up the estuary and out to Gentle Annie’s on the north side.

EVERYONE we meet had gushed about this campground so we needed to see for ourselves. It was brilliant! Such a lovely spot, wonderful facilities, cool shared areas, a pizza oven, a store, a cafe, funky showers, laundry facilities, solar power and much more - we will definitely be back here with the Fernandi! We had a lovely chat with Mike (whose travelling tag is "Adventure before Dementia") who said they always used to Christmas in Golden Bay but now love coming here instead. The waves were crashing so we swerved the beach and had a rather windy picnic down by the dunes - I bet those picnic tables are like gold dust in summer!

We decided to turn back here, so headed down the bumpy track back to the main road - with a slight detour down to the riverbed to check out what the whitebaiters were up to - they try to catch the eel like juveniles of the galaxiidae family of fish as they migrate upstream from the sea using vast nets - some of which are attached to raisable jetties (see above).

We then got waylaid by signposts to Chasm Creek Walkway and the Old Ghost Road so went off exploring… so glad we did as the walkway and the Mokihinui River were stunning.

The Chasm Creek Walkway followed an old coal railway track (sleepers long since removed) along the side of the Mokihinui river, over a couple of creeks (on new swing bridges constructed independently of the original rickety wooden structures below) and through a long dark, drippy tunnel. I became obsessed with the mossy cliffs growing on one side of us, and around the tunnel entrance. This is what environmentally inclined corporates try to mimic on city walls and buildings, but nature is infinitely more lush and creative than man... the mosses, ferns, lichens, all dripping and lush, were stunning!

Moving further up the valley we found the opposite end of the Old Ghost Road, which we had passed inland at it's start in Inangahua Junction, 85 bumpy kilometres away. We checked out the lodge where people start from or end at (very nice but nobody around to sell us a coffee), made use of the composting toilet (very civilised and smelled only of wood chippings, then we recklessly headed off down an unmaintained road to see if we could find an upstream stretch of the Mokihinui River. We met Steph and Blair along the track - they had just walked 83.5km of the Old Ghost Road over the past two and a bit days and were excited to be reaching the end - we had to let them down gently about the lack of personnel and coffee supplies at the Lodge! But walking a few 100m further, we were rewarded with tumbling river views and a bit of a forestry track to where DOC has a zip line suspended across the river to transport goods (and maybe people) to the other side... I think I'll pass!

Back to Banjo after our epic voyaging we rewarded ourselves with a hearty dinner of pork chops and veggies, then whizzed out to the pier at the northern side of the Buller Estuary to watch the sunset. The number of memorials to sailors, fishermen, boaties and immigrants who have perished in these wild waves was very sad. And you could see on the anchor memorial how harsh the elements were - the metal was rusting away massively. It was blowing a gale out there - but the pinky light over the beach to the north looked so calm and beautiful.

What an epic day!