The Wondrous, Wild West coast
Stretching North to South some 600km, the West Coast Region of the South Island of New Zealand is a long, thin piece of paradise no wider than 70km at any one point – about the same distance as from Auckland to Wellington! The wild Tasman Sea pounds its coastline covered in temperate coastal forest, from the red flowered Ratas to the native yellow Kowhai.
If you’re planning coastal exploration on the West Coast make sure you take the opportunity to really experience the natural wonders of this fascinating place. Be sure to allow enough driving time for stop offs to visit fur seal colonies, dolphins and penguins.
Explore the coastal wonders of the West Coast, visit Punakaiki Pancake Rocks. Discover the personality of the West Coast’s coastal towns, from Karamea in the North to Jackson Bay in the South.
Glaciers grinding a pathway to the coast
Two of the world’s most accessible glaciers, the Franz Josef and Fox Glacier, grind their pathways to the West Coast of the South Island.
Huge, ancient ice rivers creak and creep their way all the way to the rain forests and visitors can step on to the ice just minutes from the towns that take the glacier’s names.
Explore ice caves, heli-hike their heights, land on the snow by sightseeing plane or simply gaze at their cold, blue white wonders – Glacier Country will wow you!
The West Coast of the Southern Alps displays a great variety of ‘mountains to the sea’ eco-systems, unique alpine flora, vast podocarp forests, temperate coastal forests featuring beautiful flowering rata, kowhai and nikau palms, diverse wetlands . . . and is the only part of New Zealand where significant stretches of lowland forest remain. The West Coast boasts 5 National Parks and and a World Heritage Area.
It is also seen as a precious time capsule, showing what New Zealand might have looked like before humans arrived some 1000 years ago. A place of unique and enduring natural beauty, we strive to preserve.
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