Farewell, Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell, northernmost point of the South Island, ready to go down the west coast as far as we can. No 4wd required around here, just dusty roads.

Cobb Reservoir, Upper Takaka valley

More trout here, but mostly small. Along a long, winding, single lane road, we had to back up a couple of times when oncomers panicked when they saw a motorhome approaching and just froze. The road can be seen wending its way down the left side of the hill, and then along the edge of this water reservoir. Sometimes very windy, and sometimes huge sandflies, but superbly isolated. Stayed 3 days at the far end.

Cape Foulwind

On the way to Cape Foulwind, Westport - just a break, away from the tourists, then heading up to Karamea and Kohaihai, to meet the huge sandflies.


Cape Foulwind, just southwest of Westport - wild windy and wonderful.

More Rainbow Road

Driving up the Rainbow Valley - the road gets narrower, rougher, and very few vehicles. The motorhome handles it with ease - we don’t need 4wd yet...
You usually have a choice between a small narrow bridge with weight restrictions, or a ford. So far, the bridges take our preference, as the fords look pretty rough - and sometimes deep - and no other vehicles to help out if we get in trouble.


The 4wd book says “Caution through 3 mobile screes.” What the heck are mobile screes? We soon found out, but put the motorhome into 4wd just in case - they looked a lot more unstable than they actually were - they’re just patches of road that have washed out, been filled with loose rocks, and washed out again - many times. New roadways have to be formed after major washouts like this.



Some of the fords through this patch really WERE rather deep, and slippery and rough. And then we met an articulated truck coming the other way, with a bulldozer on the back! It was going through to repair the road we'd just driven through.