Karamea
To get to Karamea, you actually have to drive south then north (making a big U) on a road that ends in Karamea. It's not on the regular traveler circuit because it's not that easy to access, but it turned out to be our favorite stop on the whole west coast. 14 km outside of the city - on another long dirt road - is a Department of Conservation campsite next to the Kohaihai River, where we camped with a French Canadian couple we'd met at the previous nights hostel (Nick and Veronique). The site was amazing. It was at the start of the Heaphy Track, which is one of the NZ Great Walks, for good reason. There is a coastline with the most brutal waves, the kind that remind you how small you are compared to Mother Nature. Then there are the mountains, which are as equally intimidating as the ocean. We walked a piece of the Heaphy Track one day, but our favorite hike was up the Zig Zag Track. It was near sunset when we walked straight uphill for about 20 min. to find a startling view of the ocean. We enjoyed some wine, took some aerial pictures of our tiny tent, and decided to store that view in our memories.
Punakaiki
Major rain set in after leaving Karamea, so we got ourselves a dorm room at the Punakaiki Beach Hostel, a few hours south along the coast. I'm not sure Punakaiki even qualifies as a town, since it doesn't even have a grocery store, but this is a major tourist draw. After the rains left on the morning of our second day, we checked out of the hostel and took a short hike. But after the hike we walked to the famous (in NZ) Pancake Rocks. We were there along with all of the camera-toting, bus-riding tourists, which might have you thinking it's a really awesome place. However, the Pancake Rocks are just rocks that have formed into layers over time. And while this is cool, we were still getting over the landscape in Karamea. It turns out Pancake Rocks are just easy for tourist buses and campervans to stop at. We got some ice cream and moved on.
Greymouth
With the sun still shining, we set up camp at the Global Village Backpackers in Greymouth. Our first night there included a walk along the city's flood wall and a lovely sunset. We camped near a small river but woke up to unbelievably hard rain. It put the Pacific Northwest rain to shame. It was unbearable rain and we had to move into a room inside the hostel. In a city that has a flood wall, we should have known that a forecast calling for rain is nothing to mess around with. We were rained in but enjoyed the hostel and its guests. The only time we managed to leave the hostel was to join a brewery tour at Monteith's Brewery. The highlight: at the end of the tour you get to choose from a line of taps and pour your own drink. The Global Village was probably the nicest hostel we've stayed in in all of NZ, so having to hide inside while the rain came down was actually OK. We stayed 2 nights before moving along.
Franz Josef Glacier
The rain was still coming in sideways in Franz Josef Village, so we got another dorm room at a hostel called the Glow Worm Cottages. On our second night we had to find other accommodation across the street at Chateau Franz. Both places serve free soup at 6 pm. But if you're ever in NZ, stay elsewhere, the soup does not make up for the dirty carpets and musty rooms. Luckily the glacier views make the nasty hostels worth tolerating. On our second day in Franz Josef, the rain stopped and we took a rather steep hike that led to beautiful glacier views. Again we were reminded that nature is massive and we are just little people. To consider that the rocks and glaciers and limestone formations of the west coast have been forming for millions of years makes viewing them even more awesome.
