The Southern End of South Island

From Fiordland we drove to Invercargill, capital of the state of Southland, to purchase an international calling plan for our cellphone. We bought a 2degrees sim card when we arrived in New Zealand and the only 2degrees store on the south end of the South Island was in Invercargill. We found the store, bought an international plan with 300 minutes and headed to Oreti Beach Holiday Park 10 km (6 mi) west of the city. 

Oreti Beach Holiday Park

Fiordland

We left the sunshine and blue skies of Okuru on the west coast of the South Island for Fiordland where deep fiords penetrate the coastal mountains, where it rains most of the time, a place so different and beautiful that it was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1990. It’s in the far southwest of the South Island, but there’s no coast road to Fiordland from Okuru. We had to drive a circuitous route inland many kilometers, then south through mountains and valleys of the Southern Alps and then west to Fiordland.

Haast River

South Island, West Coast: Kohaihai to Monro Beach

From Little Wanganui, we headed north to the Department of Conservation (DOC) office in Karamea to get a map of Kahurangi, New Zealand’s second largest national park. We wanted to day-hike the lower end of the Heaphy Track along the Tasman Sea. The Heaphy is one of New Zealand’s Great Walks (4-5 days from Karamea to Golden Bay, north of Abel Tasman National Park). According to a sign at the trailhead, Charles Heaphy, a European explorer, was guided down the West Coast by Kehu, his Māori guide, in 1846. We stayed at Kohaihai, a DOC campground at the northern end of the Karamea- Kohaihai Road. It was small and undeveloped, but had toilets and potable water and cost $6 NZD per night. The campground was mostly empty and our spot had a view of the Tasman Sea out the back windows. The sandy beach behind us was steep, not very wide, and littered with weathered tree trunks.

Our caravan at Kohaihai campground

Little Wanganui and the Whitebait

The drive north from Westport along the Tasman Sea was spectacular. Forest-covered mountains spill down to a narrow coastal plain of pasturelands. The forested hills are filled with fern trees; everything is green and wet. Lots of mud; people wear rubber boots here. The road left the coast and climbed a small mountain; another narrow, twisty, wet road that I had to drive with both hands on the wheel. On some of the curves and bridges, we had less than 0.6 m (2 ft) on either side of the caravan. Amazingly, 20-wheel commercial trucks with double trailers navigate the one-lane bridges and one-lane blind curves (with stop lights no less!) carved out of the mountainside.

Karamea Highway along the Tasman Sea south of Little Wanganui