The West Coast 1

So it was the beginning of March by the time we had reached the West Coast of South Island and had seen the glaciers. We knew time was running out now and that we needed to make catching the interisland ferry our priority. We were booked onto the afternoon crossing on Tuesday 4 March but calculated that we could do with a couple more days. So we changed our sailing to Thursday 6th. We didn't know then that a storm would arrive that would result in ferry crossings being cancelled on the Tuesday and Wednesday.

Christchurch, on the east coast of South Island, as if it hadn't suffered enough, would also bear the brunt of the storm, with people whose homes had been damaged in the earthquake, and who had just secured funding to carry out repairs, finding flood water lapping at their letterboxes.

The West Coast is renowned for having lots of rain anyway and we certainly had rain as we moved further north. We stopped for short walks at various places on the coast and were greeted by the same grey scene that I described at Gillespie's Beach. The unalluring Tasman Sea surging in upon miles of shingle or dark sand beaches covered with driftwood as far as the eye could see.

 At Bruce's Bay we spotted more of the tiny Hector's dolphins moving to and fro through the waves just off shore. It seems that these dolphins never stray far from their home patch.

The aspect of this part of the country that I enjoyed most was the extent of the native forest. For miles dense green bush lined both sides of the highway. An impenetrable patchwork of hundreds of different plants, shrubs and trees in many shades of green. Although the sea was only metres away it was obscured from view most of the time by thick bush.

Seen from a viewing platform: miles of bush along a beach

Forest like this covered the whole of both islands until the Maori arrived and began to clear some of it but the effect of their actions was nothing compared to what happened when the European settlors began to slash and burn with gusto in the 1800's - to create land upon which they could grow crops and graze farm animals. They also imported plants and other animals to hunt and for food, such such as pigs, goats, deer and possum, which began to smother and ravage the native bush. Finally they tore out the forests in order to exploit the land in any way they could.

On the West Coast, where some forest has survived and is now being helped to regenerate, only where an effort had been made to enable access was it possible for us to get onto the beach or walk along a track. And I didn't mind at all.