11 January 2017 - Karamea Domain, Buller District

If you have been reading the newspaper reports of New Zealand’s weather over the past year, you would have heard it had been warmer and dryer than many before, however there is little mention of the Buller District, or the West Coast for that matter. Here we have had so few days of clear weather, albeit sunny and warm. In fact I cannot recall dressing in anything resembling summer clothes since we arrived in the South Island in mid-December. Fortunately for us, most of the places we have been this time have been visited before, in better weather conditions, so we do know what they look like in the sunshine and how delightful summer can be down here. I just feel for those overseas people who are travelling on a time schedule and must subject themselves to rain, cold weather and poor visablity offering abbreviated views of this stunning landscape.

We left our overnight spot on the unused tennis courts at Hector after 10am, and drove north again, along the wind and rain swept coastline, a narrow strip of agricultural land dotted with nikau and cabbage trees between the wild seas and the high mountain range that runs the length of this island. Reaching the southern bank of the Mokihinui River we drove out to the river mouth to the little settlement of Mokihinui. The houses here are no more than beachside cribs although I suspect they are more permanently occupied than meets the eye; weathered fishermen were about. There is a very basic motorcamp here which most likely is well priced, however we were neither desperate to pause our journey or keen to catch fish in this isolated spot.

We continued on upriver, turning toward Seddonville in search of the car park for the Chasm Creek Walk. When we did, we found a sign advising all the bridges were closed for safety reasons. Not keen to wade creeks especially in their swollen state, we turned around and returned to Highway 67, pressing on north, crossing the long oneway bridge over the Mokihinui River and soon winding our way up over Karamea Bluff, that part of the Radiant Range covered in gloriously flowering rata and giving access to areas to the north of this rugged region. We crossed the road summit at 420 metres ASL, high in the clouds, with little visability except for the immediate road ahead. Then we came on down to Little Wanganui and hugged the coast until we reached Karamea, the largest and last commercial centre before the road comes to an end at the south western end of the famous Heaphy Track. 

The settlement boasts a population of just 575, a motorcamp, a Four Square and a general store, an excellent information centre which doubles as the farm supplies store for the area. Of course there are other facilities here, not least this simple little camping ground at the Domain where we have settled in for the afternoon and night, with mains power and internet access, all for a very modest price and hosted by the most obliging folk. How we are spoiling ourselves these days!