West of the Lewis Pass

The Lewis Pass is the northernmost pass allowing road traffic through from the east of the South Island, to the West Coast. Travelling west, even before the Pass, the landscape has changed from the usual grass-covered hills and plains of farmland, to dense native forests of evergreen Beech and Podocarps, with an understorey dominated by the famous Tree Ferns. The vegetation at the pass itself is sub-alpine, with stands of Beech forest.

The spine of mountains called the Southern Alps that run north to south along the entire length of the Southern Island, divide the island’s climate. Most of the rainclouds never make it east over the Alps; so that half of the island is much drier. However, the rain along the western half allows the vegetation to grow a kilometre a minute! (almost).

The two main towns along the coast are Westport and Greymouth; but the entire population, from Fiordland to Karamea, is no more than about 30,000 people. This is definitely the area to come to if one wants to ‘get away from it all’ in a remote corner of the world. Westport is a prettier base, with a range of accommodation, if one wants to stay in a town rather than a tiny settlement (there’s lots of those along the West Coast) and the Mandala Cafe along the main street is a nice place to eat there. One of the nice motels to stay at in Westport is the Blue Tasman Motel.

Greymouth is remarkable in that it has a long white sandy beach, full of artistically shaped driftwood; if you stay at one of the beach side motels such as Gables Motor Lodge you can indulge yourself with a romantic bonfire under the stars every night of the week.

Huge parts of the West Coast are protected by the Department of Conservation (DoC); logging of the native timber is a dying industry; and the poor soils ‘unfortunately’ don’t support agriculture too well. With some luck, and lots of eco-tourism, this part of New Zealand will not get ‘made productive’ by this century’s inhabitants, like the rest of New Zealand by last century’s settlers. Even today, some NZers find the Bush ‘overpowering’ and ‘ominous’. They probably haven’t lived in an urban area with millions of real ‘overpowering’ and ‘ominous’ people.

The heavy rainfall and persistent sand flies are custom-designed to ensure the wilderness is not a comfortable option for anyone wanting a mundane ’sea and sand’ style vacation. Such a shame!

Traffic; well….it’s not heavy, exactly. Possibly on a bad day you might see another car every half hour or so. Scenery is splendid; I usually don’t drive as I tend to crash into the roadside while trying to identify particular plants on the banks. It probably pays to travel with someone who is botanically challenged.