Christmas Vacation - Part III: West Coast Life

After D&L left, Rob, M and I left Queenstown and headed north to explore the South Island's West Coast, which is the most remote region of the country. The West Coast region takes up almost 10% of New Zealand's land, but has less than 1% of the population - which in a country of only 4.5 million people, means that this region only has 33,000 people. Many of the towns we passed through had populations of just a couple hundred people, and by the time we reached Greymouth (population 9,800), we felt like we were in a teeming metropolis. They even had a McDonalds!  Talk about bright lights, and the big city!

Our first stop was Wanaka, which is very similar to Queenstown in location and activities, but is not as globally famous. Instead, it's full of Kiwis who think Queenstown is a tourist trap, and it's a lovely town.

M said all he wanted was just to catch one fish in New Zealand, so we asked the owners of the campsite we were staying at for a recommendation. They gave us the number of a friend of the owner, and we headed out to do some trolling with a lead line on Lake Hawea (does it sound like I know what I'm talking about?). Between the three of us, we caught seven fish in three hours - six salmon (which we kept) and a trout. Our campsite had a place for us to clean our fish - complete with a fish smoker and some spices. Suffice to say, we feasted that night.

We each caught two fish - except Mark who caught three! Bottom right: Harry, our guide, administering the Judge to the salmon Mark caught.

Best dinner ever.

After Wanaka and Lake Hawea, we spent a full day driving through Haast (population 297) and up to Whataroa (population 405) through Franz Josef (population 330). National Geographic Traveller and Lonely Planet have labelled it one of the best drives in the world, but it was a bit lost on us, as it was so rainy and foggy we could barely see 10 metres ahead of us.

Top: Driving through Haast, a land without cell phone reception; Bottom left: Our hotel in Whataroa, which used to be a maternity hospital, and was just about as creepy as it sounds. When we woke up the bathroom sink was full of dead flies - this place is not at all haunted.

The next day we headed back to Franz Josef for the one activity we'd booked ahead of time - a heli-hike on Franz Josef glacier! Unfortunately, although it was a cracker of a day in the area surrounding Franz Josef, the glacier itself was covered in clouds, and it was too dangerous to fly - and there's no other way to get up there. The area was so packed with disappointed tourists that it was impossible to find an alternative activity. Thankfully, we managed to book a last minute rafting trip with the Kiwi Bushman, which Rob will tell you more about soon, as the Kiwi Bushman deserves his own post.

We stayed in Franz Josef that night in the hopes that we could hike the glacier the following day, but they were completely booked and it turned out to be even cloudier than the day before. Instead we went Quad Biking for a couple hours and then went to the Kiwi House so we could finally see a real live kiwi bird (no pictures allowed)!

Quad biking - much better than expected!

Lunch in Hokitika - sadly the Sock Machine Museum was closed until further notice.

Finally, we drove up to Greymouth through Hokitika (population 3,000) to sleep at a very noisy campsite before catching the TranzAlpine train to Christchurch, which is supposed to be one of the best train rides in the world. We even managed to fit in a Monteith's brewery tour before our train departed!

In case you've ever wondered what a keg looks like on the inside.

Aboard the TranzAlpine train - with a very important, helpful sign in the bathroom, just in case you needed instructions.

Views from the train.  Bottom left: This town Cass only has a population of one person (I'm not even sure what that means), but that one person has a mini golf course!