The best things to see and do on a West Coast road trip

Cycle through history and nature on the West Coast Wilderness Trail while enjoying the best road trip stops along the way. Photo / Eleanor Hughes
The perfect spot for both a road trip and a bike ride, as long as you have some sort of wheels, the West Coast is an ideal summer getaway, writes Eleanor Hughes
A desire to cycle the West Coast Wilderness Trail and see never explored Karamea, morphed into a road trip from Auckland. With my mountain bike in the back of my Kia Rio and plans to hire an e-bike for my travelling, we crossed the Cook Strait at midday. Follow in our tracks as we make the most of a West Coast road trip.
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Stop over at the alpine village of St Arnaud where Lake Rotoiti, encircled by bush-covered mountains, is idyllic. Water taxi from Kerr Bay across its 7.5km length to Lakehead and return on the flat Lakehead Track. Black-trunked beech trees and verdant ferns provide shade with continuous lake views and shingle beaches to enjoy.
For panoramas over St Arnaud, Lake Rotoiti and forever green ranges, climb St Arnaud Range Track through beech forest to Parachute Rocks, at 1400m. A heart-pounding, steep, rocky trail to the 1650m range rewards with a scenic plateau dotted with small lakes and jutting, zigzagging ranges beyond.
Heading for Ross, we detour to Hokitika Gorge. Viewed from a flat trail, flowing between narrow, greyish-white rock banks, Hokitika River’s turquoise hue is astonishing.
Tiny Ross began the West Coast’s gold-mining journey. Through bush and about town, the Water Race Walkway encompasses buildings and mining relics from the 1860s gold rush days.
Drive from Ross to Hokitika (29km, 22 minutes) and shuttle back with a cycling company to Treetop Walkway to begin the bike ride.
West Coast Wilderness grade 2/3 cycle trail takes riders from Ross to Greymouth through West Coast’s past. With Totara Rail Bridge’s recent closure, avoid cycling SH6 from Ross and begin a 115km journey from Treetop Walkway. Twenty metres above ground, amid giant rimu and miro treetops it overlooks fern canopies with Southern Alps and Lake Mahinapau peeks, accompanied by birdsong. Cycle historic, forested Mahinapau Tramway Walk, used by sawmilling bogeys with relics and an 1885 sawmilling site trailside.
Close to Hokitika, Scenic Waterways’ sunset cruise along canal-like Mahinapau Creek provides picturesque reflections of flax and kahikatea trees lining its blackish water. Spot kingfisher, heron, cormorant and swallows.
Explore Hokitika’s wide streets and heritage buildings of the gold-rush port around the river mouth. The hues of pounamu can be seen in stores and at Glowworm Dell, rock walls sparkle at night.
Back cycling, wooden Kaniere Waterway flowing with water and draped by verdant bush is delightful. Pounamu tinges Arahura River green; Kumara Reservoir’s shore, littered with barren tree trunks and stumps, is strangely beautiful.
Wander through the past in the late 1800′s gold mining town of Kumara, historic buildings on its main street dominated by the two-storeyed, 1876 Theatre Royal Hotel and cycle to Greymouth on the fourth day. Shuttle back to Hokitika and drive the car back to Greymouth, 37km, 28 minutes each way.
Reaching Greymouth, drive to Brunner Mine, a Tohu Whenua (landmarks that tell our stories) site and where NZ’s worst industrial accident, an 1896 explosion that killed 65 coalminers. Brunner Walk is a moving experience, with historical information among the site’s remains.
Kawatiri Coastal Trail, currently links Westport to Virgin Flat Road, running alongside Buller River, Carters Beach, to Cape Foulwind Walkway and its lighthouse, and Cape Foulwind Seal Colony where seals camouflage on rocks. Riding horseshoe-shaped Tauranga Bay leads to Nine Mile Beach then farmland and stunning, verdant native bush overlooking tannin-stained, white sand-bottomed Ōkari River.
Denniston is another Tohu Whenua site. The plateau, where numerous coalmining settlements stood from 1878, can be toured independently; information panels relate history, family stories and daily life. But live it through Westport-based OutWest’s tour, from the steep, incline railway, wagons, workshops, mine shafts, coal seams, aerial ropeway, to settlement remains; hotels, homes, bathhouses, tennis courts, and swimming pool.
OutWest also tour working, open-cast Stockton Mine. See coal transported via aerial ropeway buckets for loading on to trains and the mine’s “nerve centre”, monitoring the 23km-squared site. Driving the pitted, stark landscape you’ll learn the history, coalmining process and witness the land’s rehabilitation.
During the drive north, take in Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks and Blowholes or walk Charming Creek Walkway, near Seddonville to explore more mining relics.
Karamea offers jaw-dropping scenery. At SH67′s Nikau palm-lined northern end, 17km from Karamea, embark on a stunning, predominantly flat, return walk on the Heaphy Track to Katipo Shelter. Paralleling the rocky coastline, enjoy tannin-stained Kohaihai River, Scotts Beach and towering Nikau palms.
Six kilometres from Karamea, take a torch to access stalactite-laden Tunnel Cave, a thoroughfare on the Fenian Caves Loop in The Fenian. Icicle-like stalactites hang from Miners Cave mouth. Between caves, the trail traverses lush, damp, moss-draped forest. Continue on wide, moss-covered Fenian Track below towering beech, to grassy Adams Flat where a replica miner’s hut sports rusted tools and a deer skull.
Take a day trip to Ōparara Basin, 28km from Karamea and a 1.5hour drive. It’s the location of Honeycomb Hill Cave which is only accessible with a tour. The high-ceilinged cave littered with stalagmites and stalactites is the resting place of bush moa, deer and kiwi bones, giant Powelliphanta snail shells, and fossilised seashells. Water droplets glitter on cave walls; glow worms form a starry sky on rock walls.
Nearby, white limestone Moria Gate Arch, 46m wide and 8m high, crossing whisky-coloured Ōparara River can be seen from a viewpoint but it’s more spectacular standing below the arch. More expansive, Ōparara Arch, among bush, resembles a stone bridge, but the river’s hues are the highlight; hokey pokey, blazing orange, dark rum.
Reefton, a goldmining town from 1870 to 1950, is movie set-like with 24 late-1800s buildings, its main street lined with tall, black streetlamps and historic wooden stores, hotels and banks. Pan for gold at the replica-1860s miner’s hut, where bearded “miners” share gold-mining stories. Walks and mountain bike tracks of varying grades incorporate mining relics within Victoria Forest Park.
Leave the West Coast via Arthur’s Pass, SH73. Drop in, or stay, at the 1865-built Ōtira Stagecoach Hotel crammed with antiques, curios and historical photos. Rooms are delightfully furnished with period pieces including porcelain painted toilets and handbasins.
Ōtira Viaduct will astound and before Arthur’s Pass Village, walk Dobson Nature Walk. Alpine vegetation blooms over summer, among majestic mountain ranges.
From the village, rocky Arthur’s Pass Walking Track undulates through beech forest, with some steep stairs. Bridal Veil Falls, viewing the village nestled at the base of mountains and historic Jack’s Hut are highlights. Branch off to cross Bealey River thundering down narrow Bealey Chasm and continue on Bealey Valley Track. Boardwalk crosses orange-tinged tussock, with stunning mountain vistas, to reach Bealey River backdropped by a snow-splattered ridge. Stairs challenge on Devil’s Punchbowl Falls Walk but reward with views of whitewater veiling icicle-like waterfalls behind.
Wander the quaint village of historic cottages, lodges and stores.
Cutting between steep, bush-covered ranges or scree-covered in hues of grey, pink, red, and green, panoramas encompass Bealey and Waimakariri Rivers and Lake Pearson. Breathtaking.
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