North or South New Zealand? Which one to choose?
Ideally both, but the combination of natural beauty and driving pleasure makes the West coast of South NZ hard to match.
Rather than fly, we chose to take the ferry from Wellington in North Island to Picton in the South. After an exhilarating run across the blue waters of the Cook Strait, the ferry entered a Sound, a wide inlet of the sea with mountains on either side. For over an hour we stood on the deck watching the scenery rolling past – small waterfalls pouring down the green hillsides and gulls wheeling above us. At Picton, we picked up our rental car and drove to Nelson to spend the night before our journey further south.
Here are the highlights of our road trip:
Nelson Lake National Park
We started our journey through the lakes route – Nelson Lake National Park – viewing lakes, streams and beech forests, the crowing jewel being Lake Rotoroa with Lake Rotoiti not far off. This part offers several short walks and trails – the Rotoroa Nature Walk (25 minutes return) or Braeburn Walk (2 hour return) – great views.
Buller Gorge
To the west lies the Buller Gorge, a deep canyon cut by the Buller river as it flows through the hills between Murchison and Westport. Here New Zealand’s longest swing bridge (110m long) spans the Buller River. You can also ride on a zip-line across the gorge and enjoy bush walks.
Hawk’s Crag
A picturesque, winding road took us to Hawk’s Crag in Lower Buller Gorge. This was built during the gold rush period to enable horses and carts to travel through the Buller district. It is wider today but sill narrower than most roads with a rocky overhang. A small lookout point on the Murchison side of the Crag at Kilkenny Point offers a good place to stop for some photos.Â
Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowhole
 We drove westwards to the coast and turned south down the west coast to Punakaiki. The highlights here are the pancake rocks, a limestone rock formation, and blowholes through which water gushes out at certain times during high tide. These unusual sights arise from New Zealand being a land of fault lines and volcanoes, resulting in surreal rock formations.
We watched the view from the Westcoast Treetop Walk. The track takes you to a series of viewpoints above the rocks and the best photos are taken at sunset.
 Paparoa National ParkÂ
Just a short drive from Punakaiki rocks, this park offers several trails and hiking opportunities – popular ones being Truman track and Pororari river track, 1.4 km return track (30 minutes) through a subtropical forest emerging onto a white sand beach.
We had an amazing experience walking through here – views of limestone cliffs and canyons, streams, coastal rainforests and a spectacular coastline too.
West Coast Sunsets
One of the natural beauties of the West Coast road is its picturesque sunset. Driving south, with the expanse of the Tasman Sea on our right, we marvelled at the brilliant colors that kept changing as dusk set in during the long twilights. Several times we couldn’t resist the urge to stop and watch the sunset rather than drive on to our destination, even though it was getting late.
Greymouth
We stopped for a day at Greymouth, a gold rush town which has been very well preserved. At the Shanty town Heritage park we rode the heritage train, tried our hands at gold panning and tasted some traditional confectionery. This culture and heritage attraction, with its historic buildings, gave us a real insight into how people lived and worked in the gold rush and logging days.
Hokitika Gorge
There are many scenic stretches of river in New Zealand and Hokitika Gorge is one of the prettiest. A short track took us above the gorge for a view of the milky blue water, caused by the rock flour it carries down from glaciers, and then down to the edge of the river. It was an easy walk on the lofty swingbridge and the views were stunning.
Lake Matheson
Further south along the west coast is Lake Matheson, nestled in ancient forest, with slightly brown water, caused by organic matter brought down from the hillsides, which reflects Aoraki/ Mount Cook and Mount Tasman. We went for a lovely, and easy walk (2.6 km, 1.5 hours) around the lake enjoying the views of the snowy mountain peaks in the distance.
Driving further south we came across a somewhat secluded viewpoint – Knight’s Point near Haast. It was a clear day and the colors of the sea were amazing. In the distance we could see Arnott Point, a clump of rocks in the sea that is the home of seals. Our 9X binoculars came in handy.
Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea
The two lakes lie approximately parallel to each other, and each has a pretty lakeside town, Wanaka being the bigger and more popular one and Hawea is charming. Mt Aspiring National park, a UNESCO World Heritage, lies to the west, and the mountains and lake combine to create pristine natural beauty.Â
There are many things to do in Wanaka and great walks to choose from, notably the Mount Iron track, Clutha River Outlet track and a walk through a forest starting from Timaru Creek. There is also a good selection of cafes, breweries and wineries to check out.
Kawarau River and Suspension Bridge
 Our last stop before Queenstown was Kawarau River Suspension Bridge which crosses a 140 foot ravine gored out of rock by the Kawarau river. This bridge features in The Lord of the Rings films, but its main attraction is bungy jumping – for the adventurous!
Queenstown
This part of our South NZ trip ended at Queenstown, a very pretty town set in a lovely location on Lake Wakatipu, with The Remarkables, a majestic mountain range, looming over it. Here was the chance to try out all kinds of adventure sports: bungy jumping, the canyon swing, jet boating, white water rafting, canyoning, paragliding, or sky diving. We contented ourselves with feasting our eyes with the scenic beauty of Queenstown and prepared for our next destination – Doubtful Sound.
Must do this again, we promised ourselves.
so much greenery!! I love Punakaiki Pancake Rocks and Blowhole. I would love to visit this place and watch one of those sunsets 🙂
Stunning scenery. I pretty much did this exact route back in 2002, although don’t recall visiting Greymouth. Pleased to say, it doesn’t look like it’s changed at all. New Zealand does it right.
I’ve been to New Zealand many times and the very best part of it is the west coast of the South Island. Stunningly beautiful
So much natural beauty in this part of New Zealand! I’ve never been to NZ, but it looks amazing, and I really hope to get there one day. I especially love your sunset photos–how lovely.
What an amazing landscape! Love the natural beauty of Lake Matheson that you have shared here. I think NZ is uniquely beautiful and I hope to visit one day.
Love NZ and always have a soft spot for the South Island. You’ve highlighted some new places for me once we can all freely travel again.
I haven’t seen water that milky blue color before – it isn’t as reflective as the other lakes and water you encountered, but it does have an eerie quality to it. I wonder if it was in LOTR .. I can imagine an elf looking at it’s reflection in Hokitika Gorge.
We originally thought that we might visit New Zealand by cruise ship. But each new blog post I read has convinced me we need to do a much longer stay and travel to places like the West Coast by car. The outdoor scenery is amazing. And I love the variety of hiking spots. And those lakes! Queenstown definitely looks like a spot we might use as a base to explore this area.
I love your elaborate description of the south Island of New Zealand. I have been to New Zealand 7 years ago on my honeymoon . did a road trip throughout the country. I think road tripping is the best way to explore this paradise of a country. Ofcourse Queenstown is my favorite but Lake Wanaka has its own charm. Great read.
Love reading this article and your words transported me there. Those resplendent sunsets are to die for. Adding this trip to my bucket list.
For me all New Zealand is wonderful, Never knew that we have to select from south or north. But I loved your west coast drive in south NZ. Lake Matheson is really heavenly and very photogenic. Also west coast sunsets are worth capturing too. Queenstown is really pretty town.
This brought back so many good memories. NZ remains one of our top travel destinations. So beautiful!
All these lakes are so beautiful! I would love to visit them along our way to the National Park – so many great road trip stop suggestions. Thanks for sharing!
Gosh this looks like the epitome a the perfect road trip – there’s just so much to take in and it’s all beautiful. I love the look of the rope swing bridge, although I’m sure my knees would be knocking, and I’d love to try the zipline too!
I love New Zealand & was lucky enough to get back there after 20 years in January. I am so pleased I did! Unfortunately, I didn’t have nearly enough time to see all these beautiful places, focussing on Queenstown & Wanaka. Lots more to do next time & having read this, I really hope it’s not another 20 years before I get there again!
I love New Zealand, I lived there for 18 months but there are still some places I never managed to get to. Queenstown was weirdly one of them as I had to switch my plans. This article and your pictures are making look forward to my next visit there again. Also love lake matheson, went there during my trip to Fox glacier. Just stunning
I miss NZ so much! I lived there for a year and adored the South Island – although the north is still my fave. Wanaka is gorgeous!
These pictures are beautiful!! New Zealand is definitely going to the top of my list!
I think your answer to the first question you ask about which island to visit sums up the article. Both. I have only explored a little of the North island and would love to return to and explore more. No matter how much time I were to allot, I am sure it would still not be enough.
Such a beautiful road trip on the west coast of New Zealands South Island. Those sunsets!