West Coast treat for Christmas 2019 – NZ
Last month (December 2019), John and I allowed three days to cover what we could of the top half of the west coast of the South Island by car, starting from Nelson. What a mistake! Just shoot down to Hokitika from our Westport-base, and then up to Karamea we'd thought. But it wasn't easy. As the drama of the Tasman Sea whipping at beaches and rugged cliff faces, prehistoric-looking copses of nīkau standing perfectly straight and tall, and the rātā splashing red along the hills unfolded, we slowed down in places to nearly a crawl, and stopped often. [caption id="attachment_495" align="aligncenter" width="2379"] Rugged west coast[/caption] But first there was Westport which sits just behind where the Buller River meets the sea. A lovely two-storied 1860s house remodeled into a hostel,…