Greymouth to Karamea- Its like Chalk and Cheese

The sun was shining as we left Greymouth, no more said about this place, but within 10 minutes driving we had hills, then mountains and then the sea. They said in the ‘Rough Guide to New Zealand’ book that this was a good route with amazing scenery and they were absolutely right.

On one side was a 200 foot drop in to the sea and on the other side soaring mountains so you had better watch out whilst driving. Last time we did this route, about 8 years ago, the weather was foul and so we could not see much but this time it was great.

We stopped at Pancake Rocks where the sea forces water up thro’ blow holes and it’s quite impressive to see. This was quite a tourist attraction as there were lots of cars, campervans etc and the car park was virtually full.

We left Pancake and continued our drive to Westport, and although we did not stop it looks a much better town to visit. We will stop here on our return from Karamea as we have to back-track a couple of hours.

The road to Karamea also has a great review and we were not disappointed. When it said in the book it would take just over two hours to do the 90 kilometres I thought that was too long but I was wrong. This road has more twists and turns than the Tony Blair Government only this time the road views down from the mountains overlooking the forest and sea were really great and boy was it hot.

We finally arrived in Karamea and nearly missed the Motel as it had changed names and owners. Karamea has a population of perhaps a couple of hundred people and relies on farming and tourism with a big National Park just up the road. This is a great motel our room is more a bungalow with a huge living/Dining/Kitchenette and also a large double bedroom with a king-size bed and large bathroom with a walk-in shower. The view from our lounge (see photo) is great overlooking fields and mountains and with cows grazing in the field in front of us.

After dinner we headed down town to see the action, Ha! However we found a pub/motel where we stopped to have a quick drink and guess what they were showing ‘Coronation Street’ on the big screen television, so we went outside to do some people watching only there weren’t that many to look at, six actually.

This is a very nice place to visit to get away from the hustle and bustle of normal life, shame we are only here two nights but we have things to see and places to go.