Friday 6th and Saturday 7th February, 2026

Beautiful

Breathtaking

Stunning

Pristine

Majestic

I’m not really sure which word describes it best, but the road trip on State Highway 6 (also known as the Great Coast Road) from Greymouth to Westport was all of them.

In fact, Lonely Planet recognise this 100km (1.5 hours) stretch of road as in the top 10 most scenic coastal drives in the world, and I can see why! But more on this later…

We had originally only booked into Hanmer Springs for one night, but once we saw how lovely the place was, we decided to stay Friday night too. Even though it was fully booked (Friday was a public holiday – Waitangi Day), they had just received a cancellation for our room type, so we managed to get our booking extended.

After our buffet breakfast on Friday (which was only fair – about 5/10), we drove to Hamner Springs Attractions where we had booked a ‘High Country Tour’ quad bike ride for us both. Dave won’t come horse riding with me, but I’m definitely up for some motorbiking with him!

The two-hour adventure took us (and three others) into the heart of a working New Zealand farm, with plenty of steep hills, lots of farm animals to dodge, and heaps of water streams to cross and get muddy in.

As we climbed up on the gravel tracks to the top of the farm, we weaved through paddocks filled with fat and healthy grazing sheep and cattle. The climb rewarded us with panoramic views of the large farm and the Hanmer River and basin below, it was simply stunning! Here, lucerne fields are mowed every two or three weeks at this time of year – it was so green and lush, no wonder the lamb and beef here tastes so good!

By the time we got back to our accommodation it was nearly 2pm, too late for lunch, but too early for dinner. Dave’s sneaky zip-lock bag of liquorice all-sorts (procured from the Qantas Lounge 😉 ) helped tide us over for a little while, but that didn’t last me long, so by 4:30pm we were headed into town for an early dinner and to get our washing done at a self-serve laundromat at the back of a carpark.

I had researched suitable dinner locations a little, but for some reason on this trip I am not quite as determined to have every single meal be the best decision ever, as I have been known to do in the past. One of the things about slowing down in retirement is that you realise that there will be more opportunities to come, and so there’s less panic about making sure every meal is the absolute best one. Having said that, we did wander the streets for about half an hour before settling on an Irish pub. Their ‘speciality’ was ‘Bangers and Mash’ with a unique option of choosing the type of sausage (four choices), the type of Mash (again four choices) and any type of gravy you would like, all served with green peas. Dave chose lamb sausages with plain mash and tomato sauce (of course!), while I had Irish pork sausages, with garlic and chive mash and mushroom sauce. It was delicious and at NZ$26 each (about A$23), not bad value considering the price of food generally in NZ.

Saturday morning’s breakfast was again at the hotel (included) and not long after we packed the car and were ready for the drive across to the West Coast. Someone had parked very poorly next to us in the car park, and it took about a 30-point reversal to get our car out, thankfully without any damage!

The drive from Hamner Springs to Greymouth is around 215km and took us about three or so hours. It was a lovely drive – the roads here are excellent and the views of the southern alps were stunning. We stopped along the way at Reefton for a cuppa and a snack and the obligatory look for second-hand books.

The traffic was surprisingly good for a long weekend. There’s always a large number of campervans and caravans on the road here, but drivers mostly seem to know to pull over and let people past if they are needing to drive slowly.

We had considered staying in Greymouth overnight, but after a brief look around when we got there, decided to continue on (up the coast) to Westport.

As I mentioned earlier, this stretch of road is famous for its beauty and we loved the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean on our left and the lush rainforests and huge mountains on our right. I might have said ‘Wow’ a hundred times!

Westport is a quaint coastal town of less than 2,000 people. Originally named Buller, it is on the right bank and at the mouth of the beautiful Buller River, and close to the headland of Cape Foulwind, where there is a large seal colony. After finding a motel that was surprisingly good for the low cost, we had dinner along the road to Cape Foulwind at a place right opposite the beach called Donaldo’s, which the motel receptionist had recommended. Dave’s burger was fair; my seafood chowder was very tasty but not very large and I ended up also eating the top half of Daves burger bun! Now don’t fret, he rarely eats the top half anyway – he likes the meat part best!

Sunday is the day for heading from West to East along the northern part of the Southern Island… more on that soon!