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West Coast

Te Tai Poutini

By Javi Lorbada

August 5^th, 2019

Blue Pools - Haast Pass -

Fox Glacier Town

After having an outstanding sunrise in Makarora, as part of Lake Wanaka story, we had breakfast and continue towards the west coast, the obligatory stop at the Blue Pools where the water it's simply mesmerizing, such an awesome spot. We tried to continue walking towards the young river mouth but at a certain point, there was a creek big enough to not let us cross, so back to the van.

The drive until Haast Pass was stunning, surrounded by mountains and rivers cool, however as soon as we went through the pass, cloudy skies and rain accompanied us the rest of the day.

We continue onto Fox Glacier, and did the walk we could, then stayed for the night. However, nothing much we could do since it was non stop rain the rest of the evening.

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What we knew.

The land is very scenic, with wild coastlines, mountains and a very high proportion of native bush, much of it native temperate rain forest.

What we Did not know.

The region has a very high rainfall due to the prevailing northwesterly wind pattern and the location of the Southern Alps, which give rise to heavy orographic precipitation.

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Lake Matheson - Fox Glacier Valley - Franz Josef Glacier

Not gonna lie here, but after a few days of shitty weather when I woke up for sunrise, run to the Lake Matheson and found up to that there were no mountains, just clouds and it was raining again, I got pretty frustrated. Didn't want to accept the situation and run away from the glacier area, thanks Clara for keeping us there.

Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches, it had been horrible in terms of weather for at least the last four days, just rain and rain.

Anyway, after breakfast, we walked around the Fox Glacier Valley, it's one of those glaciers I love, however it was shocking to see how this one was retreating the last years, we couldn't see much but the valley looked gorgeous.

After that, we headed to Franz Josef Glacier, there we had lunch and walked the valley too, we had more rain and thick clouds, visibility was bad, but I had to admit it, it must be a gorgeous glacier coming down the valley.

Since they didn't look any greater that the one before, we ended up in the supermarket buying some sweets, and going to the camping to eat them.

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Fox Glacier

"In 2006, the average rate of advance was about a metre a week. In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and its vertical or overhanging faces regularly collapsed. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of the lower glacier today"

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By reading the field notes, I now, remember how bad this weather was, I laugh reading notes and feel how frustrated I was in this coast, day after day, rain non-stop and I simply wanted to capture the raw beauty of this coast. There's always something to learn, and honestly, the weather doesn't affect my mood anymore, it's something we can fight against, so deal with it.

Franz Josef Glacier - Hokitika -

Hokitika Gorge - Lake Kaniere

Today I woke up with the alarm clock and not for sunrise, I just wanted to sleep, and who cares about sunrises if the weather isn't good.

After a slow morning, shower, breakfast, and some internet surfing, we hit the road, ideally to drive about 4h.

The road was amazing, rainforest everywhere, some snake turns and hundreds of river crossings, a glimpse of the sun too.

About lunch we arrived at Hokitika, we walk around the beach, visit the town and market and ended up having fish and chips for lunch. Everything was delicious.

After lunch, I realized there was a spot I wanted to visit in the area, the Hokitika Gorge, so our plan was altered again. We visited the place, gorgeous! That watercolor was simply mesmerizing, unfortunately, the rain didn't let me stay long with the camera but I think I will come back tomorrow.

Once the rain kicked us from the mountain river, we headed back to town to watch the sunset, dramatic clouds and strong waves accompanied us, we simply enjoyed the moment.

For the night we went to Lake Kaniere, but when we arrive it was dark, so we parked and had dinner.

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Lake Kaniere - Hokitika - Greymouth - Monteith's Brewery

That was a rainy night, drops hitting the van roof woke me up several times, so about sunrise time I decided to go out and explore the lake, well, that turned out not to be a good idea, more rain got me wet and running I went back to the van.

Here we started breakfast and get ready to head back to the Hokitika river, I kinda wanted to fly the drone around the incredibly colorful river, that was an adventure. First, we hit some of the most intense rainstorms almost made us stop the van, once we passed the storm and reached the area we took a road that a certain point we had to cross a river, so we parked and continue walking. A few km after we on foot we found a creek, broken unsafe bridge the signs suggested to cross on foot, ankle high, we didn’t do, so yes, epic fail.

After that we went back to Hokitika, that delicious fish and chips and as soon as we finished we continue towards Greymouth. Non-stop rain accompanied us until camping. But we had a window frame where we decided to walk along the black sand beach, that was beautiful until we hit the storm again, heavy winds, rain, and sand pushed us from the beach towards the van.

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Since the day didn’t let us enjoy the outdoors we headed towards the Monteith's Brewery, we enjoyed a dry and warm place while tasting a few local beers, I guess it was the best we could do with this weather.

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Greymouth South Beach -

Greymouth - Punakaiki

So, what did we do today? I woke up for sunrise to discover it was raining and cloudy, nothing new on the west coast.

But after breakfast cleared up and we went to the beach, walked around flying the drone, run a bit. Until we headed back to the van, Clara had an appointment for the dentist, and we discovered the van keys had fallen off a pocket and of course they had fallen in the right place, on top of thousands of small stones, grey color, shining with the rain, and we were not sure where exactly.

As you can imagine we both kinda freaked out, those were the only pair we had. We looked around but nothing we found, I looked at the videos drones to see if they had fallen from Clara's pocket, but I see nothing, then I joined Clara to look around, I think it was about an hour looking for the keys. Until I gave up and I thought it would be impossible, the ocean tide was coming up, maybe has washed out the keys or they are just simply impossible to find in this beach, I was scared about the consequences but we had to go through them.

And then! Whalaa! I found them! I have no idea how, and we could not any be happier.

In the meantime we found out a lot of trash around the beach and we could not let that be there, so we got a bag and tried to take as much as we found, quite surprised after that hour search how much we found.

Our day plan had changed in an hour, Clara had postponed her dentist appointment until 15:00 so we just roamed around the city until lunch and then I dropped her off at the dentist.

From here we headed to Arthur's Pass National Park, and that will have its own story.

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The beach where to look for the keys.

The Keys! Happier person ever.

Recollected trash.

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New Zealand glowworms!

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Punakaiki - Pancake Rocks and Blowholes - Truman Track - Westport - Cape Foulwind Walkaway

I guess by now you know how our mornings were. Heavy rain, clouds, shower, and breakfast. In that order, but the rain and the clouds stayed until 10:30 am or so.

Once the day cleared out a bit we visited the Pancake Rocks, that was spectacular, it was windy and the water hit those rocks, their shape is from a different world, I had never seen something like that before.

After that we walked the Truman track, here it was rainy and it ended up at the beach, we didn't walk the whole thing as we got wet before, but that's another place where mother nature has carved rocks creating an amazing curve beach.

We kept driving towards Westport, the road was incredible, the coastline with isolated rocks at the beach and green very green rain forest at the shore.

Once we arrived at Westport we were looking forward to eat fish and chips again, so we did, not as good as the ones we had before.

In the afternoon we walked the Foulwind seal colony and the lighthouse. We had a few minutes of sun and it seemed it was going to be an astonishing sunset.

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Westport - Marahau

Finally a gorgeous weather day! But we had to drive for quite a bit.

After all morning preparations, we hit the road towards Abel Tasman National Park.

I did the whole driving because I loved it, I have said before driving bores me, and it does when I have to go through highways and the road it's simply straight.

Now, 5h driving in here it's a completely different world, I'm always totally mind blown, wicked roads, snake curves, rainforest, infinite rivers, waterfalls, snow capped peaks, autumn colors, mesmerizing green fields and on and on. Not only that, but it also clears my mind, in multiple occasions while driving I got into that mind blank state, nothing I was thinking about, I've never done meditation, but I think I get similar results.

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Seriously, whenever someone says New Zealand South Island will blow your mind, they can't be wrong.

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THANKS FOR READING ♥️

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Footnotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

FootNotes

Fujifilm X-T2 + 16mm F1.4 + 18-55mm F2.8-4 + 55-200mm F3,5-4,8 + DJI Mavic Pro

© 2026 Javi Lorbada

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