West Coast, South Island

This is an amazing region with beaches, rainforest, rivers and lakes, underground networks of caves and glaciers.  Here you’ll encounter extreme beauty and at times, extreme weather too. 

Stretching along some 600 kilometres of the South Island; the West Coast plunges from the Southern Alps through primeval rainforest to the Tasman Sea.

Maori tribes once searched the rivers here for precious greenstone and as Europeans came in the 1800’s, gold rushes, timber felling and coal mining defined the region’s growth.

These days’ five National Parks and a World Heritage area, protect much of this incredible part of the country.

Much of the West Coast’s past has been based upon the extraction of the region’s natural resources and just a few minutes south of Greymouth is a little town which was at the centre of mining the richest resource of all.

Shantytown was born of the 1860’s goldrush and for the last thirty years it’s been a living monument to the hardy pioneers who came in search of their fortunes. 

Fox and Franz Glaciers are located in this region and if you have never landed on a glacier we really suggest that you do – amazing. 

This region is very untouched and can be accessed from Queenstown via Wanaka and the Haast Pass probably one of the most spectacular drives in New Zealand. 

We suggest staying in Fox Glacier, Greymouth or Punakaiki Rocks for 2 days.