West Coast Region

The Haast Pass highway is one of the most beautiful alpine scenic routes in the country. The Maori had long used this 564 m pass to cross the main divide on greenstone gathering trips into Westland, before Te Puoho, a northern chief, led a raiding party down the West Coast and across the pass to attack Ngai Tahu settlements in Otago in 1836. A gold prospector named Charles Cameron later became the first European to cross, in 1863, followed a few weeks later by Julius von Haast who led a party of four to the Coast, naming the pass after himself. A narrow pack track had been completed across the pass by 1876, but work didn't begin on the road until the 1920s. Finally completed in 1965, the Haast Pass Highway opened up the West Coast, creating a link between Westland and Central Otago. The highway runs through the Mt Aspiring National Park, the second largest national park in the country, with over 289,000 ha of rugged mountain peaks dissected by numerous river valleys. Once all but covered by a huge icecap, these beautiful mica schist mountains still feature over 100 glaciers of varying sizes as well as numerous hanging valleys and cirque basins which feed water into huge river systems running westward to the sea and inland to the lakes and rivers of Central Otago. The glaciers once stretched out to sea on the West Coast, carving out river valleys and creating the distinctive landforms which are an important part of the character of the Mount Aspiring National Park today. Between the treeline and the snowline there is one of the greatest ranges of alpine vegetation in the world, almost all of the plants being unique to New Zealand. The Aspiring region has always held a fascination for explorers, climbers, trampers and for anyone with a love for the mountains.

Westland Haast-Beach

1HAAST

The trip starts from the visitor centre at Haast .
Set in a wild and beautiful landscape, Haast became home for a small number of European settlers who tried to farm the land in the late 1800s, struggling through the harsh winters which created high river levels making it hard to move stock along the coast or to even head north to get supplies. The area has its own unique species of Kiwi, the Haast Tokoeka, of which only about 250 remain but it is mainly known for its whitebait. The glacial waters of the Haast river teem with millions of these tiny juvenile fish which are caught in nets and then combined with as few other ingredients as possible to form the ultimate New Zealand delicacy, the whitebait fritter.

2ROARING BILLY FOREST WALK

Drive 29 km southeast on the Haast Pass Highway and SH6 to the Roaring Billy Forest Walk on the left.
Opposite 18 Mile Bluff, the Roaring Billy Forest Walk leads through a beautiful podocarp and silver beech forest to the river. This small area of forest contains a range of plants and trees not found in many other places along the Haast Highway. Small plaques identify the different plant types, from ferns on the forest floor to the towering matai. The Haast River is soon reached and you can walk out across the riverbed to get a closer look at the deep blue water and the Roaring Billy Waterfall thundering down through the trees on the opposite bank. When in flood the Haast River rises to cover this whole riverbed from bank to bank, up to a kilometre wide in places. Over 100,000 years ago, glaciers extended down from the mountains and out to sea, excavating the Haast Valley and digging out rock to a depth well below sea level. The glaciers are gone now and the valley has since filled with rocks brought down by the river.

3THUNDER CREEK FALLS

Continue 22.9 km east on the Haast Pass Highway and SH6 to the Thunder Creek Falls on the right.
It is just a 5-minute walk to the Thunder Creek Falls which plummet 28 m over a sheer rock face. Julius von Haast explored the lower parts of the valley in 1863, finding the forests alive with kakapo and other ground dwelling birds. Today you are still likely to see kea, kaka and parakeets in the forests of the Mt Aspiring National Park.

THE GATES OF HAAST

Continue 1.1 km east on the Haast Pass Highway and SH6 to the bridge over the Gates of Haast .
An iron bridge spans the Haast River, surging with tremendous power across the huge boulders in the riverbed at the Gates of Haast. The Haast Pass is one of the ancient routes used by the Maori. Without the knowledge of Maori guides, many of the early European explorers would have had extreme difficulty on their long journeys into the wilderness. There was some contention as to who was the first European to discover the Haast Pass. Both Julius von Haast and Charles Cameron claimed the honour in 1863. Cameron had climbed a mountain, leaving a cairn and powder flask at the summit from where he had seen the Pass. The peak is now called Powder Flask Peak. Julius von Haast, Canterbury's provincial geologist, made an extended trip through the Pass to the West Coast and back again. His name was bestowed on the Pass despite the claims of Cameron and John Baker. Baker is said to have seen the Pass from high in a tree on the saddle while searching for sheep-run country in 1861. Prior to the contention over its discovery by European explorers, the Pass had been used by Maori warriors on their way to what was to be the last major battle, in Murihiku, the lower South Island. Te Puoho led a war party over the Pass in 1836 in search of Bloody Jack Tuhawaiki. Sent by the infamous Te Rauparaha to get revenge for an earlier loss, the war party was defeated and Te Puoho killed near Mataura.

4FANTAIL FALLS

Continue south on the Haaast Pass Highway and SH6 4.8 km to the Fantail Falls on the left.
A popular stopping point on the highway, the Fantail Falls are a beautiful sight, set in the bushclad slopes below Mt Armstrong where the Fantail Creek cascades into the Haast River. A walk down to the river to perhaps take a drink of the cool fresh mountain water or to sit and relax in beautiful surroundings where mountains, rivers a nd forests meet, makes a refreshing break on the drive through the pass.

5THE BRIDAL TRACK

Continue southwest 4.3 km on the Haast Pass Highway and SH6 to the Bridal Track on the left.
Near the summit of the Haast Pass an old bridle track leads 4 km down through the forest to Davis Flat. This track was well established by 1880 but remained unimproved until 1929, when work on the Haast Pass highway began in stages, reaching Haast in 1960 with the final section to Knights Point in Westland completed in 1965. Near the top of the pass the track passes through a forest made up almost entirely of silver beech trees, with pepper trees, lancewoods and coprosmas making up a lush understorey above a carpet of ferns and mosses. Crossing the Brodrick Stream, named after an early surveyor, the track descends into a forest where pockets of kamahi and toatoa combined with a scattering of totara, stretch up into the forest canopy, with fuschia, wineberry, three finger and broadleaf in the understorey. Native pigeons are attracted by their fruits and bellbirds eat the nectar in the flowers. The track crosses a swingbridge over Fish River, and passes the Makarora River Gorge before emerging at the Davis Flat picnic area.

Haast Pass - Blue Pool

6The Blue Pool

Continue south 9.8 km on the Haast Pass Highway and the Haast Pass Makarora Road to the Blue Pool Track on the right.
A track leads down through the trees from the road to the Makarora River and a swingbridge which crosses the river to the start of the Blue River Track. The track follows the river downstream for a few minutes to reach the Blue Pool. The pool is deep, clear and icy cold. On a still day you can sometimes see trout swimming in the water.

7MAKARORA

Continue southwest 8.3 km on the Haast Pass Makarora Road and SH6 to Makarora and the track on the right.
This area, once covered with thick forests, was extensively logged from 1861 to provide timber for local buildings, and when the gold boom reached Central Otago, the logs were rafted across Lake Wanaka to the Clutha River. Today the forests cloaking the valley are made up almost entirely of silver beech, however, near the Mt Aspiring park visitor centre at Makarora, a 15-minute walk passes through podocarp forest containing a wide variety of tree species. Halfway along the walk is a pitsaw display showing how the logs used to be cut by hand.

Haast Pass - Hawea

8HAWEA

Continue south 50 km on SH6 along the Haast Pass Makarora Road and the Makarora Lake Hawea Road to Lake Hawea.
According to Maori legend, both Lakes Wanaka and Hawea were gouged by the mighty ko (digging stick) of their great ancestor Rakaihautu. Although there are traces of Maori settlements around both of these lakes, they were abandoned by the 1840s. Today Lake Hawea is a popular and picturesque fishing location with plentiful stocks of both rainbow and brown trout as well as land-locked salmon in both the lake and its nearby rivers. The lake is about 125 sq km in area, 35 km long and 8 km wide. Fed mainly by the Hunter River which rises near the headwaters of Lake Ohau, further north in the Mackenzie Country, Lake Hawea was created by glaciation during the ice ages. The ancient glacier that scoured out the deep valley now occupied by the lake, has long since retreated back into the mountains, but it left a large rocky moraine which forms the southern shoreline of Hawea today.