We left the campsite fairly early this morning as we had a long drive ahead of us. Today we were going to leave the sunny and very beautiful north coast of the South Island to journey across to the ‘Wild West Coast’, as it is popularly known.
The drive took us down the Motueka Valley Highway, passing by fruit farms and offering us stunning views across to Mount Arthur. We joined highway 6 at Kohatu and eventually got to Murchison our planned stop at lunch time.
We stopped at the Buller Gorge Swing bridge centre and decided to take a trip across the river on New Zealand’s longest swing bridge at 110m and 17m high.
We walked above the rushing waters of the Buller River, which is known as Kawatiri in Maori (deep and swift) – a name that was a reference point and a warning. Few people tried to travel down the gorge or cross it until gold was discovered here over 120 years ago.
Across on the peninsula we saw the White Creek fault line, where in the 1929 earthquake the ground was thrust up 4.5m (15 feet).
As this area was heavily mined in the late 1800s there was some evidence left of this past life. We found a recreated miners cottage, which in this harsh climate and terrain seemed like a tough place to live back in the day.
Back on the road we travelled down to the coast alongside the Buller River, and got to enjoy it’s stunning and dramatic scenery.
Tonight we are staying at Westport Holiday Park for one night before starting our journey down the west coast…all 600km of it (not in one go mind you!).
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