West Coast Ramble, part II: to Karamea

It seems like just yesterday that we returned form Spain, but here we are together again on the West Coast for the long Easter Holiday weekend. It was not all play, at least not right away, as Kristen was on call and we had a mountain of paperwork to get through in advance of our return to MN in June. Given that we were both still a bit lagged from the recent travels, it was actually nice to play with the espresso maker, snuggle in front of the big TV and watch movies all day while it rained outside.
But with the work done and the weather clear, we decided to ramble northward, and in so doing can now say that we've driven the entire length of the West Coast together.
We started at Truman Beach, which is very close to Punakaike Rocks, and were lucky enough to catch it at low (but rising!) tide.

Truman Beach

Onward then (and onward) we drove, eventually to the literal end of the road at the Heaphy trailhead just outside of Karamea. This area is remote even by NZ standards, and is home the the magnificent Kahurangi National Park. The trek across the ranges will have to wait until another day, but we did stop by the Oparara Arch (a daunting drive). The picture below shows the river flowing out below and the "mini arch" at the entrance of the 200 metre long passage, which is the "arch proper". I just went back and looked at a blog entry for a similar formation, Mangapouha Natural Bridge, which we saw during our 2008 tour of the King Country. At the time I described it as "impossible to photograph," which is as true here and now as it was there and then.

Oparara Arch

We decided to pop over to the trailhead for Mirror Tarn and were rewarded with a sighting of a pair of rare whio (blue ducks) lounging on the water's edge.

On the way back to Cape Foulwind, we stopped to visit the Denniston Plateau, which is the site of a famous old mining town where they used to send the coal down the mountain on what was essentially a mountainside roller coaster. Today, it is abandoned by people but quite popular with korimako (bellbirds). It is also a harsh but unique ecosystem, a niche where lichens and invertebrates have co-evolved for millenia. It is highly likely that this area will be given over to open pit coal mining in the near future, like nearby Stockton. Because it is not as lush or inviting to the human eye, Denniston is a bit of a litmus test for how one sees Aotearoa. Some see economic opportunity, while others see the loss of a precious and irreplaceable taonga.

Denniston Plateau

You can probably guess where we stand.