March 28-April 7: The West Coast

From Wanaka, we took Haast pass, the southernmost pass through the Alps to the West Coast.
The West is like Fiordland, it gets hit with a lot of rain, and the Alps create a wall that prevents a lot of that rain from getting to the east side. Its amazing how quick everything changes when you cross the pass- when we left Wanaka it was sunny and dry, the hills were covered with yellow grass and tussock, and the beech and other hardwoods leaves starting to change color because its fall... then half an hour of driving and we're surrounded by lush green ferns, palm trees, dank mossy forest and its pouring rain!
The luck we had with the the rain in Fiordland didn't hold up for the West Coast- we spent close to 2 weeks there and it poured almost every day.
The west is cool because you're so close to the mountains, standing on the beach among the palm/fern trees you can see Mt. Cook from the west side. But of course with all the rain and clouds we only got a couple glimpses of the alps and couldn't get those picture perfect photos you see on postcards.
For most tourists, the West Coast is only about seeing the pancake rocks and the 2 glaciers and then rushing through to Queenstown. But if you can stand the rain, there's quite a bit more to see. We went all the way to Karamea, which is way off the beaten path, we were by ourselves there!

Highlights for us were Motukiekie beach, with its starfish colonies and endless fields of green-lipped mussels.
Hokitika is a nice town to visit, it happens to be the jade capital of NZ. There are several jewelery shops selling the stuff, and every 10 feet on the town sidewalks is a tile made of jade.
The over-hyped pancake rocks were ok, but I thought the nearby Pororari river walk was better with its palm tree jungle and limestone cliffs.
I caught another rig shark, so more beer-battered shark for lunch!
Charming Creek was a cool walk between the rails of an old coal-mining operation, and Karamea's limestone arches were nice.
But it was nice to cross the alps at Arthur's Pass to the dry side again!