On Monday we enjoyed the vicarious pleasure of seeing some of the highlights of our South Island's West Coast. Jaye, John, Paul, and Tony took us on a series of day walks around the top of the western south. For the audience it was the next best thing to being there.
After a crack-of-dawn ferry sailing they reached St Arnaud and enjoyed the local sandfly experience, then went on to the highly recommended accommodation in the superbly restored Archer House in Westport. The house is run by a Rotarian who gave the impecunious group (qv) a very good deal. Thence they completed a Paparoa Loop Track, notable for its spectacular limestone cliffs.
Whilst there they also visited the Punakaiki Rocks and Cape Foulwind, so named after Captain Cook had beans for breakfast.
The Denniston Plateau has become an icon of the old mining days. With the help of a local guide, they visited the Coalbrookdale Coal Mine and the famous incline. People actually lived permanently on the plateau, 640 m above sea level. The micro-climate was dreadful, on one occasion going for seven months without seeing the sun, yet people lived there only rarely getting away because access was so difficult. (The wife of one of our members was born on the Plateau but, thankfully, survived). Our party was in awe of the skill and ingenuity of those Victorian engineers who built the trolley way which exported 1000 tons of coal a day. From there the group went to the Karamea and the Kahurangi National Park. The landscape was impressive, as was the bush with its mixture of Nikau palms and lush sub-tropical bush. They were pursued by a carnivorous snail but easily outpaced it.
With the necessary help of a local tour company, they visited the Honeycomb Caves. Discovered only in 1976, these comprise fourteen km of caves with stalactites and stalagmites and contain the bones of several creatures that have fallen into them through sink holes, including the bones of the now extinct Giant NZ Eagle. The Karamea is renowned, too, for its giant whitebait sandwiches.
Overall, the trip had cost its members less than $1000 each, including all food, accommodation, and travel. They had all thoroughly enjoyed doing it and for us the next best thing to being there was indeed to hear about it and see the impressive photographs.