NZ's South Island-rest of the top

Upon finishing our fabulous Abel Tasman walk at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, we drove our motorhome Vwhā, south to Ruby Bay and the village of Mapua. We found a lovely camping spot alongside the water there, and settled in for the night. 

Leigh relaxing, overlooking the estuary in Mapua

It was a very pleasant spot and the bird-life was plentiful and entertaining. We would have liked to stay there a bit longer, but wanted to keep moving toward the west coast along the Tasman Sea.

Leaving there, we travelled through this fruit-bowl area, seeing plenty of orchards growing apple, pear, and kiwifruit. We saw grape and hop vines as well. In fact the hop vines were wall-to-wall along the Moutere Highway. They grow up wires strung between high poles, creating fences of green right throughout the area. 

Hops growing along the Moutere Highway in Nelson-Tasman

Hops are the essential ingredient in beer, and this Nelson-Tasman area is known for them. They were first grown here in 1842, and by the 1850s, local breweries had established large hop fields. Now-days Nelson-Tasman hops are used in craft beers world-wide. 

This area of New Zealand, is full of hops, wineries, and walks and we have really enjoyed it.

After driving west for a while, we arrived in Belgrove, where we turned south. We were headed to Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park.

Lake Rotoiti, Nelson Lakes National Park

We arrived, parked by the pebbled edge of this beautiful lake, and admired the unspoiled scenery.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) has been doing some intensive work here to eradicate pests with the aim of returning an area of honey-dew native beech forest back to its original state.

So, after enjoying our lunch lakeside, we took a short but enjoyable walk through the peaceful beech forest and agreed that their work seemed to be paying off – it’s a beautiful stand of native beech.

Next we drove through the nearby settlement of St Arnaud, then moved on to Murchison.

Historic pub in Murchison

This wee rural service town has a population of around 470, and a handful of commercial buildings; the main one being the historic Hampden Hotel.

Once upon a time, Murchison was a goldmining settlement that was eventually surveyed in 1865 under the name Hampden. It changed its name to Murchison after Sir Robert Murchison who was one of the founders of the Royal Geographic Society, as it was constantly confused with a town named Hampden in Otago.

Now-days, this wee township is known as the ‘Whitewater Capital of New Zealand’ because of its proximity to 7 rivers, and the activities provided on them, which include white water rafting, and jet boating.

From Murchison, we drove south to view Maruia Falls.

The attractive Maruia Falls

There was good signage off SH65, so we had no trouble finding it. After parking, we walked a short way through the native bush to see the falls with its short but attractive 10 metre cascade. 

Maruia Falls has been labelled one of New Zealand’s ‘must see’ waterfalls. It falls noisily into a deep pool surrounded by huge rocks. It was created as a result of an earthquake in 1929. The quake forced a landslide in the Maruia Valley that diverted the course of the Maruia River, forcing it to find its new path. 

Leaving there, a short drive took us back up to the main road and over the Buller River to the Buller Gorge.

Leigh about to cross the long Buller River swing bridge

We visited the Buller Gorge Adventure and Heritage Park to walk across New Zealand's longest swing-bridge. It looked very rickety when we got there, with no room to pass, in fact the planks for walking were only around 25 cm wide! Its 110 metres long and suspended 19 metres high above the mighty Buller River. From the bridge, the views of the river were great.

There were some historic gold mine displays in a short bush walk on the other side, and we were soon back on the bridge returning to Vwhā.

Driving west, the road was winding and narrow but showed some spectacular views of the gorge, river and native bush. Our next stop was Westport on the west coast.

The attractive art-deco Town Hall in Westport

As we were driving though, a beautiful and stately art-deco style building caught our eye. It turned out to be the Town Hall. This statuesque structure with its attractive clock tower, is on the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Register.

Westport sits near the mouth of the Buller River and is the largest town on the north-west coast with a population of around 10,000.

We managed to find a supermarket there, and after storing our supplies, did a drive-through the rest of Westport. However, notwithstanding a small number of historic buildings, we thought it rather tired with very little happening. So, we drove onwards to Cape Foulwind where we camped with a great view of the Tasman Sea.

Marg beside Vwhā with the Tasman Sea behind

Originally, we parked at the Star Tavern, a local pub offering overnight parking for self-contained motorhomes. Then during a short walk to view the sea, we met a woman who introduced herself as the owner of the Tavern. After a chat, she offered us the option of parking on her empty section. 

It was so much better than a shingle lot outside the pub, and we had the view! 

We visited the pub for dinner later, and shared our table with a delightful couple from Auckland. It was a fun night and we had a peaceful night’s sleep after.

The next morning, we drove to the other side of Cape Foulwind and walked back around the coast to some massive rocks that were home to a colony of New Zealand fur seals.

Seal pups playing in a pool at the point of Cape Foulwind, West Coast, NZ

We had a great view of the seals, and there were quite a lot of pups playing in the pools. It was definitely a worthwhile stop and walk.

We asked a local why it was called Cape Foulwind. We received a short history that went something like this....

....although several explorers dating back to 1642, had discovered the cape and given it various names, it was Captain Cook, arriving on a windy day who called it Foul Wind, because the wind stopped him from landing there.

The Foulwind name stuck – probably because it is very windy. But it is also, so very beautiful.

Next, we drive along the west coast road, sandwiched between the Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea.

This is part of a bigger blog on our travels around the South Island of New Zealand. The first blog is called “NZ's South Island-the top”