December 26

Drive to Haast: West Coast Beaches

In the morning, it was sunny in Wanaka, but cloudy in the mountains. I had breakfast, and checked out, expecting it to be rainy across Haast Pass when I drove to the rainy west coast today. On the way out of town, I stopped one last time at the shore of Wanaka Lake to take a picture. There were some ducks here, and a Japanese man with a camera followed them around taking pictures.

The road to the west coast followed the shore of a big, turquoise lake for a while, and then came to Makaroa, a small town with a visitor's center for the Haast Pass area. I stopped and looked around. Two Germans were preparing to set out for Gillespie's Pass, near Mt. Awful and Mt. Dreadful. (Whoever named the mountains around here apparently didn't think much of them.) They were told to expect chest-high water at a river, and to watch for planes when they crossed the airfield across the street. They were also told that there was a section of the trail you just don't do in bad weather. I read about the road to Haast, and then continued on my way.

There were a few places to take short walks along the road. I stopped at Blue Pools first. Fish could be seen in the clear blue water. I stopped at two waterfalls also, both very close to the road. It was cloudy most of the time, so no mountain tops were visible, but there was no rain.

As the road left the mountains and entered the broad coastal plane approaching Haast, the sun became visible. In fact, the whole coastal area was sunny, while clouds hung over the mountains a short distance inland. This was not what I had expected, after hearing the stories of how much rain the coast had been getting.

I stopped at a big, modern visitor's center in the small town of Haast. I was especially interested in seeing where I may be able to find penguins, since one of the reasons I wanted a car was to look for penguins along the beach here. I decided to take advantage of the rare sunny weather to visit the beaches immediately, especially nearby Knight's Point, a popular overlook.

I crossed the long bridge on the road north out of Haast. Pretty red flowers were blooming in trees all along the coast. I thought they might be mistletoe, since a hut warden on the Milford Track had said it blooms this time of year, but these flowers appeared to be part of the trees themselves. The road had excellent views of the clear, blue Tasman Sea below, as the road followed along coastal cliffs. There were many palm trees and fern trees in the lush forests along the sides of the road. I stopped and changed to shorts along the way, since it was now becoming warm in the sunny afternoon.

Before long, I arrived at the big parking lot at Knight's Point. This was a popular stop for tour busses. There was a covered pavilion overlooking the sea at the point here. I once downloaded a picture taken at Knight's Point from alt.binaries.pictures long before I knew where it was taken, and had used it as a background on my workstation for a while. The same picture appeared in my Lonely Planet guide, which is how I learned it was taken here. When I first saw the picture, I had guessed it was probably Hawaii. In any case, I would have guessed it was somewhere more isolated, not a pavilion next to a big parking lot. Nevertheless, the view was stunning, and this was a perfect day, so I took several pictures with both my cameras.

I ate lunch at Knight's Point, being bothered somewhat by the sandflies and some bees buzzing around. Then I continued on up the coast, looking for Monro Beach, said to be good for hunting penguins. I found the trailhead, and began the 90 minute round-trip walk through the rainforest to the beach. I hoped to find the Fiordland crested penguin at the nesting area on the beach. Signs warned not to go too close to their nests or to bother the shy birds. Bright sun filtered down through the trees as I walked to the beach, taking care not to step in the pools of water along the trail, which was mostly smooth and well-maintained.

When I arrived at Monro Beach, I removed my sandals and walked, partly through water since the tide was up, toward the north to a rocky area where I believed the penguins would probably be nesting. I saw some people sitting on the headland beyond a marked nesting area, and walked toward them, staying close to or in the surf to avoid getting too close to the rocks. Signs said to be quiet, and cross the nesting area quickly, so as not to disturb the penguins. I joined the Germans on the rocks. They were looking carefully at the nesting area below, where they had seen a penguin. I didn't see any, but it was a beautiful spot, and I took pictures of the surf crashing against the towering rock formations off the headland.

I stayed behind as the Germans started to leave, thinking the penguin may come out again once it was quieter. As the group crossed the nesting area, they started getting their cameras out. I went down to see why, and there, sheltered among the rocks, I saw a small crested penguin, which didn't seem too concerned with the attention. I got out my cameras and took some pictures of it also. This was tricky since the penguin was standing in shadows under an overhead rock. I walked a way south to another headland, but didn't see any penguins there, and started to walk back to my car when another group arrived.

On the way back to Haast, I stopped at Ship Creek for another forest and beach walk. The trees were interesting here: big grassy leaves growing in all directions. The trail passed a lake and returned via the beach. There was an observation tower here. I didn't see any penguins. I returned to Haast, since it was late afternoon now, and I needed to find a room.

There wasn't much in Haast. It is a tiny town with a couple motels, a restaurant, a grocery store, a gas station and some houses. I stopped at Haast Highway Accommodations and asked about their budget accommodations. They said they had shared bunkrooms, and I took a space in one. They also had motel rooms and a campground, and some cabins outside. There was a store and a big common room with a kitchen. The manager who showed me around seemed like a fussy old man. The big central building looked more like a hardware store or warehouse than a motel, and I learned later that it had once been a hardware store. I appreciated the spaciousness after the cramped YHA in Wanaka, but it wasn't very homey.

After claiming a bed in the dormitory room, I went outside to the pay phone and called Alpine Guides in Fox Glacier, where I would be going tomorrow, to reserve a guided glacier walk. They said I wouldn't need a reservation, and could sign up at their desk when I arrived tomorrow. Both short and long walks were possible: one to the base of the glacier, and one up on top of it.

The small store where I was staying didn't have much, so I went to the "supermarket" to get supplies. It was a big general store, but was not very well stocked. There were no fresh vegetables or meats, and the milk came in ultra-pasteurized boxes which require no refrigeration. The only meat was big slabs in freezers that would probably last for months, or canned meat. I bought a can of tiny shrimps. I noticed that they did have fresh "whitebait", a kind of thin wormy-looking fish that looks like its name would suggest, which is popular locally. It is cooked with eggs and eaten whole. I wasn't sure I wanted to take a chance with it, since I didn't know how to cook it, and since it didn't look very appealing. (Later I found a recipe in the Lonely Planet guide. If I had known that, I might have bought some.)

I cooked an early dinner, making a spicy Thai curry with the little cocktail shrimps and some other things I had already. Then I headed down to Jackson Beach, at the end of a long peninsula south of Haast, which is said to be a great place to look for seals and penguins. It was a long drive down. I got to the end of the road at 8:30. Jackson Beach was a small town at the end of the road, with many fishing boats docked offshore.

A trail went from the bay through forest to the ocean. It was becoming chilly as the sun sunk behind the hills, and I put on a jacket and my hiking boots. A few other people were starting out as well. At the first bridge, they pointed out a seal in an odd place - in the creek in the forest. I thought I might see the sun setting on the ocean side, across the forest from the bay, but upon arriving there, I noticed that the sun was still over a hill, not the Tasman Sea.

I walked a while along the rugged ocean coast, which was all jagged rocks and tidal pools. I was glad I wore sturdy hiking boots here. The pools were interesting: full of living shells, chitons, and many kinds of starfish with various numbers of arms. There didn't seem to be any seals of penguins here. A number of people were at the shore, and may have scared them off, if there were any. I walked back at dusk, getting to the first bridge at 9:30, and finding the seal still in the creek. It was said that there could be penguins along the road north of Jackson Bay, and I stopped once, but there was a lot of construction there, and getting to the bay was not easy. It was late, so I just headed back to Haast. I was worried that my gas would run out, since the drive was much longer than I expected.

I arrived at the motel at 10:30, almost out of gas. The manager was getting ready to close up for the night, and met me outside. I talked to him briefly, then went into the warehouse-like common room and had a snack and watched TV briefly. The sound was bad, and I couldn't make much of the program. In any case, the manager came in just before 11 and turned off the TV (not everyone was happy), because the common room is locked at 11 PM for quiet hours. There was no point staying up any longer, so I went to bed. Most people were already asleep in the room.

Copyright Scott A. Yost, 1996. All rights reserved.