South Island Road Trip — Punakaiki, Karamea & Heaphy
Honeycomb Caves
After leaving Hokitika, we continued up the West Coast towards Karamea. One of Katherine’s favourite places in New Zealand, our plan was to spend a few days there kayaking and exploring the Oparara rainforest and caves, then walk the first bit of the Heaphy Track, one of New Zealand’s famed Great Walks.
The West Coast Road (aka State Highway 6) is rated one of the most scenic drives in the world, and for very good reason. Regardless of weather, the place is simply mesmerizing; I wondered if people ever got tired of driving along there. Although it was raining, we stopped for a look-see at the Punakaiki Rocks. Also known as the Pancake Rocks, thanks to the stacked appearance of its 30 million year old limestone, the spot is famous for its massive blowholes at high tide. Sadly we were there somewhere closer to low tide, and while there wasn’t much blowing going on, it was still worth the stop and look (even in the drizzle!).
After Punakaiki, we continued north along the highway, eventually turning a bit inland towards Karamea. I was really looking forward to this stop as we were spending more than one night here. Up until this point, we’d been on the move every day and I think we were both looking forward to not having to pack/unpack for a little bit. The original plan had been to do a river kayak trip followed by a guided tour of the Oparara valley and Honeycomb Caves, but as it had been raining the guiding company called off the kayak trip (the river had doubled in size), and we chose to postpone our cave walk till the next day in hopes that the skies would dry up a bit. So, instead we had a really nice chill day at The Last Resort (where I wrote the Fox Glacier recap, I’m a little behind!), drinking lots of wine (at $40 a bottle, eep!), going through our numerous photos and just generally enjoying ourselves. We had some really lovely meals too: for dinner that night I had a shrimp and scallop filo pastry puff parcel that left my mouth watering even after Id finished eating. Hands down the best meal of the trip!
A leaf-stained river in the Oparara Valley
Thankfully the next day dawned with only a wee bit of rain, so we packed up the car and set out to meet our guide. The Oparara Caves are a protected system and the only way you can get even close to them is to have a DOC-licensed guide take you in. I’d never gone on a bush walk with a guide before so it was a bit novel to be able to ask about plants and wildlife along the way.
Multicoloured ferns in the Oparara
The caves were magnificent, and not what I was expecting at all. My only prior caving experience was near Austin Texas, back in 2000, and that was basically a hand-held, dont cross the velvet rope, ooh look there are multi-coloured lights, with a booming voice-over bellowing “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth…” (seriously) presentation. Not so here in Godzone! We were lead into the cave down a damp and slightly slippery slope, and cautioned not to grab hold of the very thin rope that served as a barrier. It was there for the cave’s safety, not yours!
Cavegirl extraordinaire! Photo by Katherine Kearsley
Inside the Honeycomb Cave
Our group was small, maybe eight people, so it was easy to get into the nooks and crannies of the cave. Only recently discovered (1979), “the caves are also home to the largest and most varied collection of subfossil bird bones ever found in New Zealand. More than 50 bird species, many of them extinct, have been recorded.”
A moa skull inside the caves
After the tour, which took about 2.5 hours, we drove over to the start of the Heaphy Track. We were a little short on time as we still had to drive to Marahau that day, but we both really wanted to check out the track, the Nikau Palms in particular.
The start of the Heaphy Track
The Heaphy, what I saw of it, is amazing. Super lush vegetation, palm trees and ferns every which way you look. The start of the track is marked by the massive (and slightly daunting) Kohaihai Swingbridge, which added a bit of manic (in my case) thrill to the walk.
Hanging on for dear life, and smiling all the way! Photo by Katherine Kearsley
The Kohaihai Swingbridge from afar
A pebble-strewn beach, no Nikau though
Once safely on the other side, we set off in search of the bit of the track that had a) a beach, and b) Nikau Palms. We’d both seen plenty of photos of this spot and knew it was somewhere near where we were. Although we saw a few of the iconic trees, we never found the beach although we suspect it was Scott’s Beach, which we didnt have time to reach (plus, it had started raining again).
Visiting this wee bit of the track made me realize how much I would like to do the entire track some day. I love being outdoors, but I dont have any hiking skills whatsoever. I camp fairly regularly back home, but it is nowhere near the sort of thing required on the Great Walks, and I really don’t have the gear for it right now. I definitely plan on coming back to NZ, and since I’ll have done all of the touristy things during my time here now, I can dedicate that future trip to tramping and camping till my heart’s content.
On the road again, we drove back to Westport (or maybe it was Greymouth — not sure, cant recall), we left the West Coast behind and headed north to Marahau and the start of the Abel Tasman/Golden Bay portion of our trip. The journey took us through the Buller Gorge, and again, was just beautiful. Not for the first time was I thankful I had 20gb of memory cards for my cameras! Although it was raining slightly, the sun was fighting to break through the clouds from behind us — the perfect formula for rainbows! And rainbows there were: I counted at least eight (!), although Kat reckons it was the same one just moving about. No matter how you look at it, it was magical and very picturesque.
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