I headed north from Haast Sunday morning 8th March in steady rain where —–
—– in waiting to cross the Haast River one-way bridge I could just make out through the rain a tourist bus coming in the distance. Even at Bruce Bay alongside the —–
—— beach the visibility ahead was restricted by the continuing wet. Walks I had planned ahead from Haast were quite out of the question for the day, so I headed for Fox Glacier to await better weather for Monday and Tuesday.
The rain cleared Monday morning 9th March, so I drove the few km out of Fox to the Glacier Walk carpark, crossing the Fox River via one of the —–
—— four long suspension bridges that cross major rivers on the Haast to Fox Glacier highway.
The 1 hour 3.2km walk to the main glacier viewing area is ——
—– a steady climb up the original road that was closed to traffic many years ago after a river washout (now bypassed by a steep bush track). The warm spring is indeed warm to the touch, and is a bit of an anomaly on the river side of the old road.
After 40 minutes uphill walking you come to the first viewpoint, —–
—– this one looking through the forest to the main body of the glacier. It is a further 20 minutes’ walk to the riverside viewpoints which are accessed down a bush track from ——
——- the old carpark where a bike stand is provided for cyclists.
There is a bend in the valley around which the Fox River carries glacier melt —–
—— towards the gravel bank in the foreground of this photo. The following three photos show views of —–
—— the lower ice flow area in close-up, ——
—— the upper glacier, and —–
—– the snow field where four tributary glaciers feed the top of the Fox. There appears to be a major crevasse splitting the top of the icefall into two sections so I went online later in the day and found this photo —–
—– taken on the upper section of the glacier looking down the valley. Accompanying this photo is a shot —–
—– inside the crevasse. Given that 4 individual glaciers form the top of Fox Glacier (Victoria, Explorer, Albert and Abel Janszoon) could it be that the crevasse forms where the Albert and Abel Jansoon meet?
Returning to Haast village after my 2¼ hour glacier view experience the afternoon brought cloud down the mountainsides with rain setting in for the evening.
Tuesday 10th March dawned bright and sunny, so my first visit was to the Glacier View location some 10km west of the village down past the Lake Matheson access road. This location —–
—– provides a face-on view up the Fox Glacier, but at this early part of the day the glacier valley was still shaded by the mountains to the north and by clouds.
So I went in to Lake Matheson and took the track to the Jetty View location where loads of walkers were queuing to get photos of the reflections. I noted ——
—— groups of ducks on the Lake on the way in, so expected this would disturb photos from the Jetty, ——
—– but in fact the water was reasonably smooth when I arrived and thus managed to get this view ——
—– together with this one over the heads of other walkers.
It was not until I got back out to the Lake Matheson café for lunch that the cloud cleared enough to look up the glacier valley —–
—– to the Fox Glacier snow fields and to Mount Tasman further around to the south. The cloud cleared over Tasman only briefly, but there was enough time —–
—– to get this close-up.
Continuing north on SH6 on Wednesday 11th March I decided to have my morning walk at Okarito wetland ——
—— which involves a boardwalk then a climb through the forest to —–
—– look back down on the boardwalk —–
—– and out across the Okarito lagoon (which was partly obscured by the early morning haze).
As I began crossing the wetland on the boardwalk I was impressed by the volume of bird-song I could hear from trees opposite me – many walks so far this trip were through silent forests. I soon found out why I was being treated to this new experience when I met and talked with a ranger and his rat detection dog coming towards me out of the forest onto the boardwalk.
He works for ZIP (Zero Invasive Predators NZ) which has expanded operations since setting up in 2018 to cover a huge area (107,000 hectares) of West Coast forest, rural and alpine areas eliminating rats, stoats and possums. In 8 years the rat and stoat populations have been eliminated using special dogs and remote sensing cameras to find specific locations where these predators are active. Special plastic traps are then placed at the detection spots. These traps have front and rear doors which shut tight when an animal enters and steps on a floor plate. The closed trap is then flooded with carbon dioxide from a canister to smother the creature. As for possums, he said they are the easiest to get rid of, and at this point in time there are only six uncaptured possums in the whole 107,000 hectare area. His work with his dog is to check that there are no predator incursions into the cleared area from surrounding forests.
I forgot to ask him if I could photo him and his dog after we talked —–
—– so took this shot across the wetland after he left me. The dog has a special wire cage muzzle, so he is not a “rat catcher” but a “rat sniffer”, and the traps are set at the point where he locates a rat hole or track.
I spent the afternoon and night at Lake Ianthe where I was able to use a 1 bar signal on the phone to book and pay for a space at the DoC campsite. My DoC 12 month Camping Pass ran out on Tuesday and given that the NZMCA discount no longer applies and DoC have increased their charges across all tracks, huts and campsites, the $165 I paid for this past year was a bargain compared to the new rate of $295/year (which I will not be purchasing).
The lake is a delightful spot for fishing ——
—– if you have a suitable boat, —–
—– or paddle boarding if you have a suitable board. This couple arrived by car from which they hauled two packs to the foreshore and began pumping up an inflatable paddle board —–
—– which they carried down to the water to —–
—— launch and enjoy a cruise out onto the lake. [Note that they have only one life jacket between them, and “guess” who is wearing it.]
Heading north on SH6 Thursday 12th I called in at Kakapotahi Beach just before Ross, and found freedom camper families and couples having breakfast (with sand-flies) in the early morning sun. It was good —–
—– to see surf again, but like many west coast beaches there was timber litter everywhere —–
—– leading to the temptation for visitors to build these “wigwam” stacks.
After Ross I was “dying” for a hot drink as my gas bottle ran out this morning before I could “boil the billy” for breakfast, so it was a cold repast at 6.30am. Next up the road past Ross is the West Coast Tree Top Walk, so I popped in to its café for a flat white and a choc-cookie fix. Having done the walk twice (2024 and 2025) I gave it a miss this time and just took one telephoto view —–
—– to see if anyone was coming down the zip line. No zip line riders – only two early birds sightseeing from the top of the 110 step tower.
My morning destination was to check out the Hokitika Gorge walk.
In 2024 the smaller of the two suspension bridges (shown below as at 2024) on the Gorge loop walk was closed —-
—— as it had become dangerous. However, walkers could access the viewing rock in the background above via a return track over the larger suspension bridge away around the corner to the left of this photo.
Then in 2025 re-construction of the unsafe bridge was well under way (here viewed from as close as walkers were allowed on the closed section of the track) —–
—– with remnants of the old bridge hanging below the new deck.
And now in 2026 the completed new bridge ——
—– looks great, with —–
—– the re-opened full loop track allowing visitors on the new bridge to view the —–
—– blue water reflections both downstream and —–
—– upstream. In fact these “blue pools” on the Hokitika River were much more impressive than the Makaroa “Blue Pools” I visited last week.
At the edge of the forest there was a timber viewing platform —–
—– with steps (to the right) —-
—–down which a large group of young Chinese visitors took to the viewing rock. With them clambering up the rock for photo op’s I had to wait ages to get this up-river person-free view of the blue ice fed cold water.
It was then into Hokitika for lunch and to purchase a “Swap-and-Go” gas bottle, and head for the Top 10 Holiday Park in Greymouth.
It began raining Thursday night with showers and downpours continuing throughout Friday 13th. This suited me well as I needed a maintenance day to get laundry and housework done.
Saturday 14th March cleared to fine, so I did some local exploring. My first stop was the Brunner Mine Historic Area where from the carpark I could look down on —–
—– the railway suspension bridge that carried coal wagons across the Grey River to the main railway line. Going down to the line I was in time to see —–
—– the Trans Alpine heading into Greymouth for its lunchtime stopover.
After lunch I headed to the Pike River Mine Memorial near Slaty where at the Longburn Road turnoff to Pike River —–
—— there is a special memorial for the 29 miners who died on 19 November 2010 following the mine explosion. There is a —–
—— main memorial boulder with the names of all who died plus 29 other boulders, all sourced from the Pike Mine valley, being one for each man. Families have placed their own memorial plaques on individual boulders —–
—– with this one for Blair Sims surrounded by coloured stones expressing love from family members, and—–
—– this one for Dan Herk (Dan the Man) surrounded by empty beer cans and bottles, no doubt from his motor cycling friends who come here regularly to toast his memory.
I then headed 15km up the valley via Longburn Road and diverted onto the main mine access road ——
—— which was originally a “private access road” to the mine but now is the route into the Pike 29 Memorial Track which enters the Paparoa Forest at the Mine Portal.
The last 5km into the Mine Portal is a gravel road ending at ——
—– these locked gates through which the mine portal buildings could be seen from —–
—– the Memorial Track carpark where I was the only visitor this afternoon. The track entrance is via the arch on the left.
The memorial track was established by the Pike 29 families, DoC and local iwi and winds nearly 12km through the forest to link into the Paparoa Great Walk track. However, there was notice for a short 10 minute 500m walk to the Twin Bridges which I found to be a 15 minute heart-pumping climb —–
—– from the track entrance to ——
—– the first bridge, followed by a 10 minute knee-jarring descent back downhill to the carpark.
So, what was the deal re —–
—– the “private access” sign where the mine road headed away from Longburn Road?
It was supplemented by another sign 300m further on ——
——- which clearly supports the efforts by Pike 29 families to have police lay charges against mine management over responsibility for the disaster, as well as enter the mine and recover the bodies.
A really sobering visit today.
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