Kohaihai- Sandfly Heaven

Our shift from the Karamea Domain to the DOC camp at Kohaihai has to have been our shortest moves yet. We travelled all of 16kms, no morning rush to get on the road (not that ever is with us), no dump station, no groceries, just a top up with water, a wave goodbye to the hosts and then a leisurely amble up the coast to the end of the road which is as far north as you can go on the West Coast.

We could have stayed on at the Domain and visited Kohaihai as a day trip but I like staying at the DOC camps and we also wanted to do a bit of exploring around the beginning of the Heaphy Track- one of NZ’s ‘Great Walks’.

Dairy farms border the road both sides right to the last 3kms of gravel and the beginning of the Kahurangi National Park (we’re back again). It’s a pity the entrance to the park is not a lot nicer, the last farmer has his sheds on one side of the road and his house on the other, and everything in between and surrounding them is one big jumbled mess. Why they have to leave their bale wrap scattered about where it's dropped, I have no idea.

We smile as we pass a hitchhiker, he only has a kilometre or so to go and if he’s intending to walk the track he needs all the exercise he can get! We've passed quite a few hitchhikers on our travels & when they see such a large vehicle approaching, I think, they think, we have heaps of room available Or perhaps we’ll let them into the van to sit and have a bite to eat as we tow it along. The look of disappointment on their faces is priceless.

The DOC camp is quite large with a mixture of sites available; under pine trees overlooking the sand dunes, along the edge of the river and on grassy areas on the inside of the road that circles one way through the camp. There’s also an information shelter at the start of the Heaphy Track, with the tide times and the weather forecast.

We leave the messy BBQ pits and picnic tables for the tent dwellers and we don’t get sucked into setting up under the trees where we’ll not get TV reception. We park on a large grassy patch where a caravan, that looks like it’s been there for a few days, is parked and where a motorhome joins us later in the afternoon.

The beach is stunning, there is a deep drop off behind the wave line and swimming is not recommended although the sea looks very inviting this day. Going by the angle the wind-blasted bush on the hill behind is growing, there is obviously a strong prevailing westerly wind.

One thing I have noticed on the west coast beaches is how far the waves come up the beach at high tide or when it’s rough. We’ve seen a few places where the waves actually come up and over the crest, reaching into the dunes behind. It must be to do with the steep drop off, the waves don’t break until they’re right inshore. At Flagstaff Beach near Karamea, the waves actually broke through the dunes and flowed down into the estuary behind.

Flagstaff Beach - Karamea Estuary

The West Coast is famous for it’s sunsets but so far I haven’t done too much about them with regards to taking photos. I’m usually busy getting dinner, or having a wine before getting dinner. Unlike an evening in the North Island, you mostly can’t sit outside enjoying the last of days rays because of the constant harassment from sandflies, another thing the West Coast is famous for.

We’d been warned numerous times about the sandflies at Kohaihai- they swarm in great clouds, they are huge (the smaller, the nastier in my opinion), they bite uncontrollably, they suck the blood until you’re dry. And everyone has a remedy that works. For them.

Unlike a couple I overheard in the Westport iSite, we decided long ago (after a major run in with sandflies at Mavora Lakes) that no amount of harassment was going to put us off visiting places because usually the most stunning settings are the sandflies’ favourite places too- Mavora Lakes, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Nelson Lakes, Marlborough Sounds, Lake Kainere and now Kohaihai. The couple I overheard were wanting to travel from Wesport to Nelson, camping along the way at the DOC camps for a night or two. BUT they didn’t want there to be any sandflies! Hmmm…..I struggled to keep a straight face as the woman behind the counter tried to explain to them that wouldn’t be possible. It brought to mind a quote I once read;

If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try spending a night in a tent with a sandfly.

We have tried many different sprays of many different strengths- I have half finished tins and bottles of potions spread far & wide, I have a wrist/ankle bracelet to wear with smelly stuff in it, we even light the appropriate candles after dark when we are outside. But I’ve found none of them totally deter sandflies, most deter them a little, some are totally useless- the best option is too wear long sleeves, long pants & long socks- I can’t do that, I get far too hot even with the lightweight gear. I’ve just learnt to ignore the bites if I get any and if I do inadvertently scratch an itch, the Soov goes straight on. So far, *touch wood*, other than a bit of swearing every now and then, we’re surviving ok.

The elderly lady in the photo above had the right idea, thick gloves and a hat with an insect screen. She’s a Coaster and even she is not immune to the little blighters! This lovely lady was camping in her van under the trees at Kohaihai, her daughter & son-in-law were in the caravan beside us. They’d been there for two weeks and came from further down the Coast near Okarito. This morning she had ridden down the road to the dairy farm, returning later with a very large bag, full of tasty fresh mushrooms, some of which she shared with us.

There are a couple of short walks that can be done when visiting Kohaihai, you can also do day walks on the Heaphy Track if you don’t intend to walk the complete 78km track. If you are walking the complete track it takes a bit of organising to arrange your transport options; the ends of the track are 463km apart by road and are both in quite isolated areas. We visited the other end when we were in Golden Bay last year

This is the Kohaihai River swingbridge, it’s just a few steps away from the camp. Like all the waterways in the area the river is tannin stained. The mouth of the river is partially blocked- the waves were crashing in at high tide but nothing was flowing out once the tide receded. We heard that the Nikau Walk was flooded the other day with walkers having to wade through thigh deep water. I guess the winter rains will flush it through.

The Nikau Walk leaves the main Heaphy track just over the swingbridge and does a short circuit through a beautiful grove of Nikau Palms.

It reminded me of walking through our lovely native bush & nikau garden at home in Tauranga, albeit that we only had about 20 palms, here there were hundreds. David wasn’t impressed, he thought it looked untidy with all those fronds laying about. “This is natural rainforest, not my garden!” I told him. I think I spoilt him keeping our garden’s understory trimmed and tidy. Once again there were quite a few flowering rata vines climbing in amongst the palms.

At the end of the Nikau Walk you can either return to the camp back along the boardwalk or carry on along the Heaphy Track walking up and over the Kohaihai Saddle to Scotts Beach. We decided to do this, I would have liked to have walked to the Heaphy River & Hut where the track turned inland but that would have been a 10 hour return walk and you have to time it right with the tide around Crayfish Point at the end of Scotts Beach.

The view of the campground from near the top of the saddle.

The lookout over Scotts Beach below. The day was very hazy with sea spray and mist reaching high up into the bush behind.

We cross a rocky stream just before we reach the beach…

...and then the track skirts along the edge of the sand. There are a number of signs warning us to watch out for rough seas and, explosives? We hesitate for a moment and then move out onto the sand where we can then see that DOC are blasting a track through the rock around the point. We had seen the helicopter flying in supplies, it was landing near our campsite, and we also saw two motorcross bikes tucked into the bush just off the track when we arrived at Scotts Beach, we’d seen their tire tracks on the way in. But the riders were nowhere in sight- maybe they were having lunch.

We stopped below where they were blasting (don’t worry, we could hear if anything was about to happen) and sat on the rocks to have lunch. The tide was on it’s way out and had only just left the rocks trampers had to walk around to continue on their journey- these ones were a little further out.

I can never get over the fact that just when you think you’re the only people around for miles, someone makes an appearance- this time it was a young woman with a huge pack coming around the point from the other direction. After 5 days of dried or reconstituted food, her mouth must have been watering at the sight of our lovely fresh fruit, sandwiches and cup of tea!

More Nikau Palms- imagine the clean up underneath those ones David!

After getting beaten up once again by those darn pesky sandflies we head for home back along Scotts Beach. You can see it’s just a short climb up to the saddle- the dip just back from the point- although our legs complain when we get home, so it must be steeper than it looks.  I think if it had been a clearer day then this walk would have make a better impression on us, we both thought is was just average.

There’s another short walk- the Zig Zag Track- to the top of the hill behind the camp ground, in my book it says 20 minutes one way. I know it’s going to be a steep climb but I’m wanting to see the view. The sign only says 2 minutes and it’s looks like someone has rubbed away the zero. I head up the track to find out that it is only 2 minutes, the track ends on a small plateau just above the camp. I think DOC have let the bush reclaim the rest of the walk, I can see the hint of a track through the overgrown scrub but it’s too thick to walk. I head back down taking this shot of the river and swingbridge on the way.

We decide to leave Kohaihai after two nights, the weather forecast isn’t great and we have in mind that’ll we’ll take a quicker run down the coast than planned, through to Hokitika so we can go inland to Lake Kaniere for the Easter break. We stay at the NZMCA Westport Park for one more night on our way through, it’s amazing, after the very busy nights on our previous stay, that now there are only 3 vans in for the night. Either it’s the change in weather or everyone has gone home for the holidays.

Lost World- The Oparara Basin

Ten kilometres north of Karamea is the turnoff to the Oparara Basin, a hidden valley 14kms up another narrow, rough gravel road (an old forestry road) and inside the Kahurangi National Park. Yet again we are visiting Kahurangi, the largest National Park in New Zealand and one we have visited many times on our journey around the top of South Island.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the distance travelled on a gravel road always feels at least twice as long as it actually is, probably because of the slow speed (it took us 45 minutes) and the bumping about inside the cab. This road was no different. It started out well but steadily got worse with many corrugations and washouts and a few steep sections where there was no gravel or dirt, just bare rock where the road had been cut through.

All the same it was a lovely drive with thick rainforest bordering & sometimes forming a tunnel over the road with occasional glimpses of a rocky creek bed down below the road. Splashes of red from the flowering rata vines grabbed your attention here and there. It’s been a good summer for the rata, they are still flowering long after there usual season. Possum control must have also helped.

It was a great surprise, after not seeing another person or vehicle on the way in, to finally arrive at the end of the road and find this information shelter and a quite a few cars. What a lovely welcome to the Oparara Basin this is; toilets, shelter, interpretation panels and picnic tables.

The Oparara Basin has been called the ‘lost world’ and is one of the finest features of the Kahurangi National Park. Along its course through the basin, and over 35 million years, the Oparara River has carved out three massive limestone arches and numerous cave systems.

At the end of the road and just a few kilometres further on from the public carpark is the highly fragile Honeycomb Hill cave system; a 13km maze of tunnels with over 70 entrances & only first explored in 1980. This cave system contains the remains of over 50 species, including the extinct moa and New Zealand eagle and is only accessible by guided tour to protect the fragile and unique environment. Within this protected area is the Honeycomb Hill Arch, the basin’s third and remotest arch.

There are two arches we are allowed to visit & we decide to visit the Oparara Arch first, the largest natural rock arch in the Southern Hemisphere. The 1km walking track follows the Oparara River upstream. We keep an eye out for Blue Ducks/Whio, there’s a breeding population located in the basin but once again we miss out on seeing them.

The walkway is well formed and very picturesque with ferns and moss growing everywhere and over everything. David sets his track timer going and we’re off….

We pause at the edge of the river where it’s very still and reflective. The dark tannin stained water turns a rich gold colour as it flows over the shallow edge. Cup of tea anyone?

Thick moss and lichen encrusted branches overhang the river and the track like ghostly arms and David is sure James Cameron’s inspiration for the movie Avatar must have come from here- or in fact Weta Workshops inspiration. He feels like he’s walking through a movie set and large blue people will spring out at him at any moment.

And here’s our first glimpse of the huge arch, a land bridge over the top of the river.

And directly underneath, looking up.

The track leads us up into a huge cavern where there’s an old sign with the measurements. Apparently these are not quite right though- DOC’s measurements put the arch at 219m long, up to 79m wide, and 43m high.

We make our way down to the river bed….

Where we can now see the other end of the tunnel….

We wade through the river, (wearing our Tevas was a good idea- most people had walking shoes or tramping boots on), crossing it a couple of times before reaching the other end.

The water is cold but not too deep….

Until the last crossing where it’s quite swift and there’s a deep pool. The rocks are also slippery so we decide we’ll not risk getting wet. A pity because I’m sure there would have been some blue ducks up further! The boulders and rapids we can see  around the corner look like ideal blue duck territory.

We head back towards the entrance…

And I take a photo of David standing below the impressive arch.

Back along the track I stop to take some close ups of the rich green mosses and the stunning moss covered rocks that surround a stream which flows down into the river.

And stop by the river again where I spot these rocks with their contorted faces & hair tuffs.

Back at the carpark we see that our foreign neighbours(with their very young daughter) from the Karamea Domain Campground have parked beside us. In their hire motorhome. Hmm....they obviously can’t read and we’re not sure how on earth they managed to manoeuvre their van over the road without doing some serious damage.

And I can’t imagine what they would have done had they met anybody coming from the opposite direction. The width of the road would have been little more than the van itself and there were very few areas to pass or pull over should another vehicle approach. But there you go, they made it there and back, and were tucked up safe and sound on their site by the time we returned. We heard that the grader was due through the road the next day, I wonder what would have happened had anyone met that on the road let alone a large campervan.

Still to come from the Oparara Basin-

Crazy Paving  & Box Canyon Caves
Mirror Tarn
Moria Gate

North- To The End Of The Road

Ok, back to it. Just so you don't get confused, these next few blog posts are from the last couple of weeks when we travelled from Westport up to Kohaihai and then returned heading south to Lake Kainere for Easter (& where we still are and still sitting it out in the pouring rain- I know the West Coast has something like 200 days of rain a year but this is ridiculous!)


We left Westport, heading north along the coast, bound eventually for the DOC camp at Kohaihai at the end of the road and where the Heaphy Track ‘Great Walk’ starts. It’s only a little over 100kms to the end of the road but, as has become our custom, we only move 40-50kms before setting up camp again. With no itinerary and all the time in the world to get there, we enjoy the luxury of not being in a hurry.

Our first stop is at the Gentle Annie Beach Campground which is just over the river from the tiny beach settlement of Mokihinui. The campground was on the corner of a working farm, a large grassy open area with smaller sites surrounded by hedges (no powered sites), and just across the road from the beach. The cafe come resident’s lounge was called the Cowshed Cafe and was in fact located in an old cowshed.

A 4km gravel road led down to the Gentle Annie Beach, leaving the main highway just over the Mokihinui River bridge and just before the long and winding climb over the Karamea Bluff. Later we took a drive over to Mokihinui where there was a collection of older houses and holiday baches. The Tavern looked like it may only be used over the summer holidays (and during whitebait season no doubt). The photo, middle right is looking back over the river mouth to our camping ground.

Across the road from the campground the beach was lined with diftwood in all directions. Great big piles of it snaked along the tide lines off into the distance. In some places the row curved far into the paddock where rough seas had carried it through gaps in the sand bank. West Coast’s iconic nikau palms grow randomly through the paddocks, spared by the settler’s axe many years ago, although providing little shade for the stock they are a visual treat. Hundreds more poke their heads out from the thick native bush behind.

Abandoned houses make interesting photo subjects….

We couldn’t believe our eyes one morning when a neighbour opened their door to let three large dogs out. It wasn’t a very big caravan, I don’t like to think what it was like inside especially when they all came running back from the beach covered in water and sand and went racing straight inside! I did feel rather sorry for them when they were tied up together though, one was a young dog who kept moving about and tangling the other two up or dragging them form side to side.

We did a couple of short walks while in the area (short being the operative word!) Not far inland, along side the river is the tiny farming settlement of Seddonville. Seddonville, you might remember, is where the 80km Ghost Road bike trail and tramping track finishes- it starts at Lyell, in the Buller Gorge where we stayed.

The Chasm Creek Walkway is a short 2km track that runs along the river bank & beside the road (obscured by bush) just before Seddonville. It was once a rail corridor for the line used to cart timber & coal from mills & mines further up the valley. We were a little worried whether we’d get to see the tunnel and the glow-worms on the walk as there was a notice saying the footbridge was closed.

We took a chance and while the first 500 metres- apart from the splashes of red from the flowering rata vines- was very non-descript, just a bit further on the most amazing and beautiful moss hanging gardens came into view. Growing on both sides of the rock cutting before the entrance to the tunnel and also overhanging the tunnel opening were many vibrant shades of green & rust coloured mosses which draped and smothered the surrounding rock faces, while behind a fine layer of water seeped down the walls keeping everything moist and spongy. A curtain of water also dripped down on us as we entered the tunnel. In some places the moss was at least a foot deep.

The tunnel was short and and the track finished at the bridge just on the otherside- we’d chosen the right end to walk from- you could also walk in from the road closer to Seddonville but this would have been frustrating, seeing the tunnel across the closed bridge and not being able to get there. The bridge had been boarded up and there was no way around it. It was obviously the old rail bridge over Chasm Creek and closed for safety reasons. It didn’t look like there were going to be repairs done to it any time soon, if at all. Which would be a shame as it a good little walk to do if you’re in the area.

After Chasm Creek we drove further on into the valley, past Seddonville and down a gravel winding road(what’s new?) for about 10kms. This brought us to the northern end of the Charming Creek Walkway which starts in Ngakawau 3hrs walk away and follows the corridor of, once again, an old railway. Just over the bridge from the carpark are more remnants from an old coal mine and timber mill. Charming Creek Walkway is rated as one of the South Island’s top five day walks but I can’t confirm whether this is true or not as we decided to give it a miss. Perhaps we’ll walk it the next time we’re in the area.

Our next stop heading north was Karamea but not before crossing over the Radiant Range on a 26km winding and sometimes narrow road that winds its way up and over the hills. Who would live in Karamea I wonder- not many I find out later- having to drive all this way to get to civilization and then its only Westport (sorry Trev). Karamea is about as far as one can get away from it all in New Zealand (by motor vehicle at least). A place of endless wild beaches fringed with nikau palms and feeling like a remote Pacific Island (when the sun is shining).

All through the hills great swathes of mature native trees lay fallen like pick-up-sticks in no particular order. Other trees have had their top halves ripped off. And right beside the dead and dying, corridors of trees are the living; standing tall and green, the lucky ones, spared from nature’s powerful fury. This is the aftermath of Cyclone Ita which roared across New Zealand during Easter 2014, hitting the West Coast especially hard. We’re going to see quite a bit of devastation and windfall on our travels.

We emerge from the hills at Little Wanganui and decide to have lunch at the Little Wanganui River mouth, freedom camping is allowed along the road to the mouth but from what we saw there aren’t too many spots to park up at other than right at the mouth itself where we found a fire still burning from the last overnighters. The sea is very rough and the incoming tide pushes the waves up the river threatening to snuff the log fire out with each surge. It must be a man thing- the hunter/gatherer gene, but David adds a few more pieces of wood to the fire.

This was one of our more interesting lunchtime views; straight out onto the rolling surf, we watched as the waves crept closer and closer to the burning log but left before it was wiped out.

Two surfers were looking for a ride and swum across the mouth and out into the white water dodging a flotilla of large bobbing logs and a raft of smaller driftwood along the way.

We stayed for a couple of nights at the Karamea Domain campground, a pleasant enough spot beside the Karamea River and across the playing fields from the school. There was a lawn bowling tournament on beside the drive into the Domain. They all stopped to gawp as we squeezed by.

Karamea is certainly small, I’m not too sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t one hotel, a small garage with fuel pumps, a police station, two churches, a Four Square supermarket, a couple of tour company businesses, half a dozen accommodation houses and many dairy farms. This is really the back of beyond and I take my hat off to the people who choose to live this far away from a reasonably sized city, it would definitely be a life-style choice in my opinion. Tourism and dairy farming looked to be the mainstays that keep people out here.

We passed the local cop taking the school students through their bike riding skills on the tennis court when we left the Domain.

We did a spot of bird watching while exploring the huge estuary that the Karamea River opens into, an estuary that was formed during the 1929 Murchison earthquake when the Karamea Port was blocked off.

An Australasian Harrier Hawk keeps a lookout for dinner along a feeder stream.

David spotted a White Heron/Kotuku flying over the Domain and we were lucky enough to spot it again when we went to check out Flagstaff Beach. It was feeding on the estuary edge and no amount of stealth disguised our approach before it lifted and flew further away.

Flagstaff Beach was barren and windswept, I had heard that there are often large pieces of driftwood and tree stumps littering the sand (which would make great photo subjects) but it wasn’t to be this day. Maybe they are further north.

My little black stickman makes an re-appearance albeit with his pant legs rolled up- winter must be approaching!