West Coast, New Zealand
The
West Coast is one of the
administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the
South Island. It is made up of three districts:
Buller,
Grey and
Westland.
* To New Zealanders the term "The Coast" invariably refers to the West Coast of the
South Island, and "Coasters" to those that live there.
* "
Westland" is incorrectly used by some New Zealanders to refer to the
whole of the West Coast, including Buller. Coasters themselves would never do so.
*
Fiordland is geographically on the west coast of New Zealand but has no road connection, and is in the
Southland rather than West Coast
administrative region.
|
Typical rugged coastline of the West Coast |
The West Coast region reaches from
Kahurangi Point in the north to
Awarua Point in the south, a distance of 600 km. To the west is the
Tasman Sea and to the east is the
Southern Alps. Much of the land is rugged, although there are coastal plains around which much of the population resides.
The land is very scenic, with wild coastlines, mountains, and a very high proportion of native
bush, much of it native temperate
rain forest. Scenic areas include the
Haast Pass,
Fox and
Franz Josef Glaciers, the Pancake Rocks at
Punakaiki and the
Heaphy Track.
The region has a very high rainfall due to the prevailing northwesterly wind pattern and the location of the Southern Alps.
The region's area is
23,000 km². It is divided into the three
districts of
Buller,
Grey and
Westland.
The West Coast was home to
Māori, who valued it for the
taonga of
greenstone (pounamu) which was found there in abundance.
Westland was only occasionally visited by early Europeans until the discovery of
gold near the Taramakau River in
1864 by two Māori, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau. By the end of the year there were an estimated 1800 prospectors on the West Coast, many of them around the Hokitika area, which, in 1866, became briefly the most populous settlement in New Zealand.
A major
goldrush took place between 1864 and 1867 creating numerous gold rush towns such as Okarito which became the one time largest town on the West Coast but then quickly almost vanished as miners moved on. After that time, the population dwindled, but the main towns that still exist on the coast had become established.
Following pounamu and gold, the next mineral to make the West Coast valuable was coal. Discovered near the
Buller River in the mid
1840s, mining began in earnest during the 1860s. By the 1880s, coal had become the region's main industry, with mines throughout the northern half of the region, especially around
Westport. Many of these continued in operation until the mid 20th century, and several survive today.
Timber has also long been a major industry in the region, although in recent years there has been an uneasy balance between forestry for wood and forestry for conservation. Much of the region is public land administered by the
New Zealand Department of Conservation and the region has some of the best remaining stands of native forest, along with a wealth of rare wildlife.
Ecotourism is now one of the industries for the region, and this goes hand in hand with the conservation efforts.
The region is sparsely populated, especially in the south, with the
2001 census recording 30,303 inhabitants, a decline of 2,211 (6.8%) since
1996.
Major towns on the West Coast are
Greymouth,
Westport, and
Hokitika. At one time, during the gold rush days, Hokitika had a population of more than 25,000 and boasted more than 100
pubs. A recreation of an
early New Zealand settlement can be found at
Shantytown.
Industries on the West Coast include
mining for
coal and
alluvial gold,
forestry and wood processing, and also
fishing (including
whitebaiting),
tourism and farming. Dairy farming has grown strongly - the local dairy co-operative Westland Milk Products remained independent when most others merged to form
Fonterra in 2001.Other industries are the manufacturing and sales of greenstone jewellery, sphagnum moss gathering and stone-collection for garden landscaping.
The West Coast is also famous for being the only New Zealand nesting place of the
White Heron, which nests near the Okarito lagoon and can be visited from tours operating out of the small farming township of Whataroa.
*
West Coast Regional Council*
Tourism-focused "West Coast Homepage" 
