Just been away for the weekend over to "The Coast" - as the west coast of NZ's South Island is known. Its a narrow strip of land between the Tasman Sea and the Southern Alps running up a large part of the South Island. Its a temperate climate but with legendary levels of rainfall - annually 2m to 3m by the coast rising to 10m above 1,000m. The temperate but very wet weather creates a wonderful environment that is largely unspoiled. While there though, we had near perfect sunny weather - very lucky! We crossed over the alps taking the Lewis Pass on our way to Westport, stayed for 2 nights and made our way home via Arthurs Pass. We did 860kms over the 2 days and the Freelander was worked very hard at times. It performed fantastically as usual using 62l of fuel - so 7.2l/100km or 39.2mpg.
This was taken in Reefton on our way over, originally a gold mining town...
We spent a couple of hours chilling out fishing on Gentle Annie Beach...
A local flightless resident.. a Weka, or as they are 'affectionately' known, Bush Chicken...
The Fox River, these blokes launched their 'tinny' with a tractor down on the river bed. They didn't have rods, so I presume they were going out to check their Lobster pots (the sea was the other side of the bridge)...
The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki are probably the 2nd best known touristy spot after the glaciers further south. I didn't get any decent pics, this is about as good as I got!
The West Coast's main livelyhood has been coal mining. It is still mined, but on a much smaller scale than its hey day. One of the biggest mines was on the Dennison Plateau perched over 2,000ft up a mountain. It was famous for its Dennison Incline which was a track laid onto the side of the mountain which the coal wagons would be hoisted up empty and sent down full - it fell 510m in 1.7km - considering it was built in such a harsh environment in the 1800's is amazing. We took a drive up the mountain to see the mine's remains. Most of the buildings and machinery have gone, but its still an interesting place. The road up rises from sea level to over 2,000ft in 7km - with numerous hairpins! The L Series pushed us up there in 11 mins, I've speeded it up so you can see it in 1...
We came home over Arthur's Pass. This means we had to come up the Otira Gorge and Viaduct. Although its not that twisty, its a really steep piece of road. I was down to 2nd gear and 20mph a good number of times crawling up it. It only climbs from about 400m (1,300ft) to 920m (3,000ft) but it is a killer. Here's the main part...
I apologise for the pen on the dashboard!