Jackson Bay
Jackson Bay is the end of the road on South Island’s west coast. State Highway 6 rarely strays far from the ocean for more than 400 kilometres from Westport in the north as far south as Haast Junction, where it turns abruptly inland and climbs over the mountains, never to see the sea again. But you can continue to drive further south from Haast.
It was the remoteness of Jackson Bay that appealed when I first planned this New Zealand trip. Originally I allocated two nights at Haast. But then I stole a night away from Haast to give to Hokitika. We therefore had a 90-kilometre detour in the wrong direction before heading north from Haast to glacier country. Fortunately, Haast-Jackson Bay Road is sealed despite being a dead end.
Two-thirds of the largely forested way there, a bridge crosses the Arawhata River before taking a sharp right-angled turn towards the Bay. There was nowhere to stop but photographs had to be taken, during a 20-second leap from the car on the bridge.
Looking to Mt Aspiring National Park
Water colour!
The Bay was looking blue and peaceful.
Once at Jackson Bay fishing hamlet, we had a wander, soaking up a beautiful morning and the peace of such a remote spot. There were many photo ops, including a neighbouring volcano! (I’m fairly sure the relatively low hill – 689 metres – was Mt McLean.)
Jackson Head, sheltering the 24-km-wide Bay, is formed from sandstone, limestone and conglomerate. The conglomerate – consisting of two types of sandstone and a mudstone – outcrops on the ocean side of the headland in ‘highly unusual patterns seldom seen on the coast’, an information board told us.
The crazy red Craypot cafe was expecting a group of cyclists for lunch. I totally got why they would have fancied a trip down here, but I didn’t want to share their inevitably noisy exuberance. The walk to the ocean side we’d earmarked was cordoned off, to our initial disappointment, but a local reassured us it was now OK to use. Wharekai-Te Kau track takes about 20 minutes each way, but fascinating plants and rocks meant we took twice as long.
Creature of the deep
Buried treasure
Chapel on the rocks
We returned to the Craypot, which was empty. We both chose whitebait omelette on ciabatta. This juvenile Black-billed Gull begrudged our every mouthful.
