As we neared Picton, the South Island harbour, the scenery became increasingly dramatic, with the ferry weaving through the flooded valleys and forested ridgelines of the Marlborough Sounds. The Sounds are ancient river valleys drowned by rising sea levels thousands of years ago and they make for one of the most beautiful ferry arrivals anywhere on the world.
After we disembarked there was a long four-hour drive to get to Westport on the west coast. The road wound through the Buller Gorge, a dramatic river valley carved over millions of years by the Buller River, one of the country’s fastest‑flowing waterways. We paused at Lake Rotoiti, where a regatta was in full swing. The lake sits within Nelson Lakes National Park, a region shaped by ancient glaciers that once filled the valleys.
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| Lake Rotoiti |
As we continued west the route gradually became wilder and more remote as we entered the South Island’s west coast, one of the least populated parts of New Zealand and an area long shaped by coal mining, forestry and the unforgiving Tasman Sea. Westport was once the beating heart of the region’s industry. Nowadays it is quiet and non-descript, but it was our gateway to the wild west coast.
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| Cape Foulwind Lighthouse |
The following day we set off on our scenic drive down the west coast. Our first stop was the fabulously named Cape Foulwind Lighthouse, which owes its moniker to Captain James Cook who was blown off course there during bad weather in 1770. Thankfully for us the conditions weren’t quite that dramatic, but they weren't far off!
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| The wild West Coast |
The west coast feels incredibly raw and untamed, with the Southern Alps trapping moisture from the Tasman Sea and creating one of the wettest regions in the country. Dense rainforest grows almost right down to the beaches which gives the whole coastline a slightly prehistoric feel. The rain was thankfully sporadic and didn’t spoil the wonderful ocean drive, with sunshine breaking through at some points and us driving in the clouds at some of the higher peaks.
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| The Pancake Rocks |
The famous Pancake Rocks have a small industry built around them with cafés, facilities and shops there to meet the huge numbers of walkers that visit this popular area. The rocks themselves are wonderful and the walkway through them offers spectacular sea views of the nearby beaches and cliffs. The strange limestone formations were created around 30 million years ago from layers of marine sediment and compressed shell fragments, with wind and seawater slowly carving them into the stacked “pancake” appearance seen today. During high tide the blowholes there can launch seawater dramatically into the air.
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| The Pancake Rocks |
Further along the coast we had our homemade lunch at Sunset Point in Hokitika, which is a slightly bonkers beach complete with shipwrecked boat and beach art made from driftwood. Hokitika itself was once a booming gold rush town during the 1860s when prospectors flooded the west coast searching for gold. Today it’s much quieter and better known for pounamu, New Zealand jade, which is highly important in Māori culture.
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| Sunset Point, Hokitik |
Further south, the mountains grew taller and we caught our first glimpse of a glacier as we rolled into Franz Josef. Named after the Austrian emperor by a German explorer in 1865. We were staying in the lovely Aspen Court which is nestled under mountains of Franz Josef. It's a well-loved spot and as such there are a great selection of bars and restaurants to choose from in this very popular town.
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| Franz Josef Glacier |
Another day and another monumental drive ahead of us. But first there were still a few things to see around Franz Josef including viewing its most famous landmark. Like many glaciers worldwide, Franz Josef has dramatically retreated in recent decades because of rising temperatures. Old photos in the area really hammer home how much ice has disappeared. What makes the glacier unusual geographically is how low it descends from the Southern Alps into temperate rainforest, few places in the world have glaciers and rainforest sitting so closely together. Early in the morning the car park was still relatively quiet and a short distance away is Sentinel Rock where you can get a great view of the glacier.
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| Franz Josef Glacier |
From Franz Josef it's a thirty-minute drive to the famous mirror lake of Lake Matheson. It's another popular place to visit and was very busy, but again the facilities were great including a café, shops and facilities. There are a few options to explore the lake, and we chose the short walk to the jetty point which gave us a good spot to take some photos of the near perfectly still lake. On a clear day the lake famously reflects the peaks of Aoraki or Mount Cook and Mount Tasman, although we only got partial views thanks to the cloud.
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| Lake Matheson |
Next up was one of the big drives of the holiday. I was a little apprehensive about driving the Haast Pass but I shouldn’t have been. It was less hairy than I had imagined but the scenery was astonishing. From Franz Josef Glacier to Arrowtown via Haast Pass and the Crown Range Road is one of the classic South Island road trips. It takes you from rainforest and glaciers on the west coast, across the Southern Alps, and into the dry alpine basins around Wānaka and Queenstown.
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| Ship Creek |
State Highway 6 runs south along the rugged west coast, and we stopped at a few beaches on the Tasman Sea including Ship Creek, a beach shaped by ancient dunes and driftwood carried down from the Alps. From Haast the road turns inland and climbs into Haast Pass, the lowest crossing of the Southern Alps and historically an important Māori trading route between the east and west coasts long before European settlement. The road hugs the edges of Lake Hāwea and Lake Wānaka with huge views of mountains and glacial valleys carved out during the last ice age.
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| Lake Wānaka |
The alpine town of Wanaka is the entrance to the Crown Range. From Wanaka the road heads up the Cardrona Valley toward the Crown Range and at the summit it’s New Zealand’s highest sealed through road. There are steep gradients and big alpine views and a lookout with views toward the Wakatipu Basin and surrounding ranges. From these dizzy heights the road plunges down toward the Queenstown basin with a famous zig-zag section with tight switchbacks and expansive views toward Lake Hayes and the Remarkables jagged mountain range.
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| The descent to Queenstown |
By the time we rolled into Arrowtown, a beautifully preserved gold‑mining village from the 1860s and our base for the next few days, the drive had been long, dramatic, and unforgettable.
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