West Coast Region
The wonderful West Coast (Māori: Te Tai Poutini) of the South Island of NZ is quite a large area, as you can see in this map marked out in green.
The region reaches from Kahurangi Point in the north to Awarua Point in the south, a distance of 600 km. It is bordered by the Tasman sea to the West and the Southern Alps to its East.
It is a very beautiful and diverse region, rich with mining history and abundant in bush and wild life.
The region is divided in three main districts, Buller District, Grey District and the Westland District.
The Buller District - covers area's such as Westport, Karamea, Reefton and Inangahua Junction. As you should be able guess from its name it is also the heart of the Buller River one of NZ's longest rivers flowing 170 km from Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson region, through the Buller Gorge and out to the Tasman Sea near Westport.
Westport is the main town of this District.
The Grey District - covers area's such as Greymouth, Runanga, Blackball and Cobden.
The Grey District has a rich history in mining, and tourism and agriculture are some of there key industry's.
The Grey District is boarded by the Punakaiki River in the North and Mt Anderson to the South. It is north to The Pinacle, southeast to Craigeburn, southwest to Jacksons and following the Taramakau River to the Tasman Sea.
Greymouth is the main town of this District.
The Westland District - is the most sparse district of the three it covers area's from Hokitika, Franz Josef, Haast and Ross.
It is boarded by the Southern Alps to the East and the Tasman Sea to the West, the Taramakau River is to its North between the Grey District. Then the Westland District finishes to south on the boarder of Fiordland in the Southland District.
The main town of the Westland District is Hokitika, which once a year holds the Wild Food Festival.
Each of the districts are very beautiful and unique in their own ways. The West Coast as a whole is one of the most unique and eye catching places I have visited in NZ to date. It is definitely an outdoors family dream destination with and abundance of outdoor activities and nature to see. But no matter where you look their is always something beautiful to catch your eye, I feel the West coast has something for every family, even on a grey west coast day it is still breath taking.
We have visited the very tip of the ice berg so to speak when it comes to the west coast. But we have many more adventures there planned in the near future. I will continue to share and update the places we visit in this beautiful region as we go. Below is a link to Adventures in each District - Happy Exploring
