The Wild West Coast….
Happy New Year everyone! This is a long one, it was an epic trip!
We headed off to the west coast through Arthur’s Pass. Above is as we entered, pretty awesome!
There are 3 passes through the mountains in the south island getting you from one coast to the other. We had done the Lewis Pass when we traveled NZ the first time, and planned to do the Hasst Pass on the way home. All incredibly scenic and a feat in engineering !!!!
We left home about 9am and arrived in Greymouth in the early evening.
Greymouth was founded over 150 years ago . It was the 6th largest export (coal and timber) town in NZ for a time and now although much much smaller is the home to NZ’s leading craft beer, Montheiths which has been brewed here since the 1860’s.
We had told Luca that we would be staying in a mixture of campgrounds and airbnb type places. The Greymouth campground was pretty flash and way more than we were expecting. Luca’s first statement was ‘this is not a campground, this is heaven!” Granted our usual camping is very basic and rustic, so his level of expectation low 🙂
The facilities were wonderful though, the shared bathroom the best we have ever seen in a campground! It was the first time we have come across these bouncing “pillows”, Rich and Luca up on it in a shot!
Late in the evening it was deflated but the kids still played on it until dark 🙂
the whole area is set right on the beach
We hung out on it well into the evening, Luca of course going in despite the cold water temperature.
After supper we went down again to see the sunset, so so beautiful…
The campground was paved so Luca spent a lot of time scooting, perfect place for using his new scooter!
Early the next morning we packed up the car and left it in the car park (Rich would be riding back to get it in 4 days). We packed up our bikes, Rich and I had the panniers on our bikes and we all had on our padded bike shorts which Luca found hilarious and wore shorts over them as thought they looked ridiculous 🙂
We hit the trail early before 9am, so happy it was a beautiful day. This was the route we would take for the West Coast Wilderness Trail….
and we were off on the 136km ride…
The first day was a relatively easy 29km from Greymouth to Kumara . The views ranged from ocean, to farmland to bush, part of it through the old horse drawn tramway, my favourite part of this leg. When gold was discovered in Kumara in 1876 the merchants in Greymouth needed a reliable and cost effective way to supply the area or risk missing out to business in Hokitika and this way the solution! The tram tracks are now gone and bike trail in its place…
We arrived in Kumara early afternoon. Kumara was the scene of the last great gold rush in 1876. Kumara became the greatest hydraulic sluicing (for gold) field in the world!!! By 1877 the population had reached 4820. It had a hospital, 38 hotels, a school, 4 banks, 4 churches, a butter factory, a blacksmiths shop, numerous sawmills and a literary institute! The last census saw Kumara’s population at 309 and there is only one hotel now, the beautifully restored Theatre Royal, which by all accounts was a huge undertaking as was almost at the point of no return.
One of the old banks and the undertakers are now set up as places to stay
We stayed at Maggie’s, a restored cottage that has lost none of its charm. Pauline her owner showed us pictures of it from years ago and not much has changed including the mine shaft that runs beneath her!
We had a late lunch at a roadside stall, down the road from the pub..
Then we thought we would take a ride to the local lake. It was so hot we all stripped off and dove in, including me! For me to have jumped in it must have been hot 🙂
On the ride back to Kumara Rich got a flat tire! We were in a bit of a conundrum as the only dairy (grocery store) in town was closing and we needed supplies for an early start the next morning, plus we had left the puncture kit at Maggie’s. I stayed and walked with the bike while the boys rode back with the plan being Rich would ride back to me. As it happens I made it back to town just as Rich was coming back so he was able to sort it in the backyard….
We hit the pub for a late supper and it was delicious! Packed to the gunnels we had to wait a bit for a table, was not a problem 🙂
The next day we were up and hit the road early, this was going to be a much tougher day ride wise. 34km of steep terrain heading into the bush and off grid to a place known as Cowboy Paradise. The name somewhat misleading but more on that later! We went past the lake we had swum in the day before
Those hills in the background were where we were heading. My favorite parts to cycle on this whole trial was when we were in the bush like this, even if it was steep it was always gorgeous…
This part reminded us of moose territory and Luca was off searching.
Ironically we met a couple right at this spot, she was kiwi and he was from New Brunswick. We ran into them a lot on the trail at various spots and enjoyed their company.
Then it was back into the bush again.
and out the other side, this river was incredibly clear, at one point I saw a large eel winding its way along , longer than the length of my bike it was a good size!
We then came across a place we did not know about, Travelers Rest. Owned by a guy called Paul, he bought 138 acres back in the 70’s for $8500 and built himself a little home over the river in the bush behind the teepee and has lived here ever since, completely off grid. When the trail opened up he saw potential for offering a space to sleep and eat and has set about doing that. It is very rustic and even he says he needs help, in fact his specific words was “stay it needs a women’s touch”, it does, but the potential is incredible , the spot our idea, of ideal and we in hindsight very much wished we had stayed here.
Rich having thoughts for our next move 🙂
Once we stopped it encouraged others to as well, and soon there was quite a little group of us. We met a couple from Auckland who were traveling with their 3 and 5 year old. They had electric mountain bikes (we saw a lot of them on the trail and elsewhere, they are becoming very popular). It was so nice to meet others like us whose kids are growing up thinking this is what a holiday means 🙂
We then headed off again
The next 6 km were a challenge, scary steep but exhilarating!
Of course once you went down you had to climb up again,
Finally after a long climb …
we made it to the entrance of Cowboy Paradise
So for those of you contemplating doing this trail, DO NOT stay here! The accommodation itself is actually quite nice, but the owner is HORRIBLE. He is renowned ,(we found out later), for all sorts of dubious behavior and the local community is trying to get rid of him. The entire group of us staying there were pleased to leave, appalled by him. You were at his mercy though unless you wanted to get on your bike again! We had already paid for accommodation and there was no way he would have given us our money back, plus you had to eat what he provided , not allowed to take your own food which meant he charged what he wanted. Needless to say it was our most expensive night during the entire trip and a huge rip off!!!!!! One of the women had had a fall on the trail, badly gashed her knee and needed attention, luckily I had brought my kit and sorted her out, the owner was not at all interested.
Anyway despite this, we met some great people, one of whom, also a nurse, used to work at Middlemore Hospital when I worked there, back in the day, we knew people in common and reminisced about “the good old days ” 🙂
The drama of it all was quite the talking point both then, and later as people would say, “oh you stayed at Cowboys, how was it” with an inflection and everyone would launch into their own story of how awful he was . In hindsight makes for good storytelling 🙂
The next morning we looked forward to heading off. This was the longest day kilometer wise at 36km to Hokitika…
it was a fun ride down the hill!!!
At the bottom we made a wee 2 hour detour, we had been told about a side trip that required a hike back up in to the bush. It was to a place called The Cesspool. We had time and all keen to see it so off we went
We lost the path a couple of times but finally came across it and it was worth the hike in!
The water so clean and clear….
Luca did strip off and go in but lasted about 5 seconds as so cold 🙂
The trip out was faster as we knew the path. On the way we met a young women and her dog who was hiking into a hut way up beyond the Cesspool. She lives on the coast and told us about trails you are OK to take dogs on . We were feeling bad about Pica not being with us she would have loved the trip so much! Unfortunately most of the trail we were doing does not allow dogs.
As we came out I noticed things did not seem quite right with bike. I had had a couple of falls (few bruises nothing too serious) and seems I had lost a bolt holding the carrier in place at some point. As usual Rich came to the rescue 🙂
After he fixed it we headed off to Hokitika with a few big hills to climb on the way…
We took another quick detour to Lake Kaniere to have a snack. This is a well loved local lake with lots of holiday homes and makers there.
The Kaniere Water Race was built in 1875 to supply water from the lake for sluicing on the Kaniere goldfields, with the trail beside it it makes for a wonderful ride
Luca is always looking out for animals and birds but this one held particular interest. As he said “you can buy a lot of Lego sets for $10 000!!! ” :). Alas he did not find one, but he skidded to a halt numerous times thinking he heard it!
We arrived in Hokitika later afternoon and settled into our little hut
then into town for a very civilized supper. Hokitika owes its existence to the discovery of gold in 1864. The port of Hokitika became one of the busiest ports in NZ and by 1867 had the highest value of exports in the colony. It is a cute little well kept town now, we liked it a lot, especially the wide wide streets!
The next morning after a hearty (if not so healthy!) breakfast of meat pie, cookie and a slushy we hit the road for the 35km last bit of the ride to Ross
Leaving Hokitika on yet another beautiful day. We had been so,so, so lucky with the weather. A region notorious for its wet weather had yet again given us nothing but sunshine! As you may recall when we traveled the top half of the west coast on our initial travels in NZ it was the same.
As we rode along we stopped and took another side trip down to a lake for another swim. By then we were all pretty over the sun and wanted some cloud!
Back on the trail we followed along the old tram way again….
and the last push for the township of Ross. The historic gold mining town of Ross lays claim to NZ’s largest gold nugget found here in 1909. The “Honorable Roddy” nugget weighed 3.06kg. It is estimated that there is still 10 million ounces of gold under the township!
Our campground was on the outskirts of the town right on the beach with shipping containers made into huts for sleeping, there was a communal area for cooking and bathrooms . The containers were done up very nicely!
We headed for the beach to chill out before supper. Everyone was feeling pretty tired but elated. Luca kept saying, I can’t believe we just did that, it was awesome!
Rich had biked into town for supplies earlier
The next morning Rich, being the iron man he is, hopped on the bike and rode 60 km along the highway to pick up the car in Greymouth and drove back to us by lunch! He sent us this photo from Hokitiki, he called in to get the same pie from the day before as loved it so much 🙂
Luca and I rode into Ross and checked it out and Rich met us there
We then jumped in the car and drove to the Hokitika Gorge, we wanted to do the hike while in the area, it was really lovely and worth the, out of the way drive, to get there.
That evening we went to the local pub for its famous roast buffet. Heaving with locals it is full of character , friendly, and authentic to its core.
Afterwards we spent the last light of the day on beach. Luca did not want to leave and thought we should camp out in this hut for the foreseeable future 🙂
The next morning we headed down to Hasst Pass, past the two glaciers and over the numerous one way bridges which dot the west coast highway. Rich, 20 odd years ago biked the entire west coast, while we rode and drove he reminisced and pointed out places he had camped . Who would have thought he would one day be traveling it with his half Kiwi son!
It seems while we were away Otago and much of NZ experienced massive storms. Areas around Dunedin flooded, we got held up while crews cleared roads to allow us through. We made it home eventually, we picked the right week to be away!
The next morning (yesterday) Luca and I went to pick up Pica, she sure was glad to get home to her comforts and her boy 🙂
The chooks and Vida too very happy to see us! Vida has been having 2 cat guests over while we were gone. They were seen by the person coming to feed Vida and the chooks. One called out the first night home looking for her, she stayed snuggled inside not interested in going out. Last night Pica chased one off, guess they won’t be coming around again .
Yesterday the weather cleared and the sun came out but today it has rained again all day!. The septic pump could not be got yesterday as it was a public holiday so I went to the Port laundromat and did 3 loads of laundry, very handy having that there I have to say!
Today Rich went and got the new pump and he and Luca installed it, it all went very smoothly thankfully, we can have showers again 🙂
For Christmas Rich gave me this book…..
I have been reading it over the last week, perfect timing! I am learning so much about the South Island that I am embarrassed to say had no idea about! Rich has always been great at choosing the best gifts! Highly recommend!
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