West Coast Sept 4-6 &10

We made the few obligatory stops crossing Haast Pass and then drove down to Jackson Bay to give my parents an idea of my field area. We walked down a shallow, meandering creek to one of my favorite West Coast beaches to watch the Fiordland Crested penguins waddling to their nests at the end of the day. A few waited around on the beach and would comically run down to the water's edge to greet their buddies each time one appeared from the surf. We were fortunate with a slight break in the weather, which gave off a soft golden light and beautiful sunset. The penguins seemed to enjoy it equally.





We stayed the night in a troubled Fox Glacier township, which had just seen a plane crash killing 9 people (5 locals) earlier that day. The following day we stopped at Hokitika Gorge where many improvements had been made to the trail since my last visit. I was quite impressed with what they were able to do with it and that much of it was made handicapped accessible. Here the improvements seemed welcome over the packed 1.5 lane road with insufficient parking I encountered previously. The water was as creamy and as blue as I remembered it. Someday when I am here on a warm day I will jump in.



We stayed the night at a precariously-situated bach half a stone's throw to both the highway and the roaring Tasman Sea. Just to its north a small creek cascades past the front door, a large rock pinnacle immediately seaward provides some semblance of protection and glass windows and patios look out on the coast in two directions. What an impressive place to sit out a storm! The noise of the sea was distinctly constant like a waterfall, rather than the rhythmic rolling of a more orderly swell. We went for a few short walks the following morning and drove up Bullock Creek to where the road was flooded in well over a meter of water. Then a long drive on to the caver hut on Takaka Hill where we readied ourselves for 3 days on the Heaphy track.









Post-Heaphy track we went for a drive and hike in the Oparara Basin, one of the most spectacular landscapes on the West Coast. Here several limestone arches and caves abound, and the red-brown tannin-brewed waters are in stark contrast to the grey flaggy limestone and vibrant greens of some of New Zealand's lushest rainforest. It is a special place to me, which I why I was horrified to see tourist improvements here- signage overkill and carefully-managed trails taking away from the rugged beauty of this place. Worst of all, revisiting a small, but very photogenic creek, I found an old photo of mine is no longer reproducible as it now has a bridge crossing the shot. Sometimes I wonder if it is better to never revisit a place.