Photographic prints and image files of North Westland, New Zealand

Westport
​Originally called Buller, Westport is the main centre for the northern part of the West Coast. It is close to the prominent headland of Cape Foulwind. The Māori name for the area is Kawatiri. After gold was discovered in the Buller River in the 1860s, a small trading settlement grew up on the eastern side of the river mouth. At the height of the gold rushes in 1867 the population grew to 1,500. The 1880s saw many exploratory parties of geologists and surveyors combing the area for the presence of valuable resources and taking the measure of the land. Amongst them were Charles Heaphy, William Fox and Thomas Brunner. The discovery and mining of high-quality bituminous coal near Westport led to the progressive development and expansion of the port. The township is effectively an island surrounded by the Buller and Orowaiti rivers and the sea. It has escaped major flooding for almost a century with the help of a man-made overflow channel into the Orowaiti River. The whole town of Westport may have no choice but to shift within the next 100 years.

Granity.
Squeezed between the often-tempestuous Tasman Sea to the west and steep forested cloud-shrouded mountains to the immediate east, the town is the largest in this sparsely populated part of New Zealand. The name "Granity" was given to the town by gold prospectors, in reference to the large quantity of granite in the area.​

Seddonville.
​Seddonville, named after Prime Minister of New Zealand Richard Seddon, is most well-known for the historical role it played in New Zealand's coal mining industry. In 1895, the last section of the Seddonville Branch railway from Westport was opened from Mokihinui to Seddonville and included an extension to the Mokihinui Coal Company's mine.

Karamea.
​Karamea is the northern most settlement on the West Coast. There is no connecting road north of Karamea. The road ends at the Kohaihai River, the southern end of the Heaphy Track. The first Europeans and Chinese were gold miners in the 1860's, with settlement starting to take place in 1874. Karamea boasts a very temperate climate making it ideal for many types of horticulture. Dairying remains the major industry but flax, timber and gold once helped to provide a means of living. In the 1500’s Maori used the estuary as a summer camp along the greenstone route. By 1926 Karamea had five operating wharves but the harbour closed when the river silted up following the 1929 Murchison earthquake.

The Oparara Basin.
The Oparara Basin is one of the finest features of the Kahurangi National Park. For a million years the Oparara River system has been at work sculpting the 35 million-year-old limestone basin into an intriguing complex of caves, arches and channels.The forest is a mixture of beech and podocarp, thickly carpeted with mosses and ferns growing in shallow moist soil and squeezing root systems through cracks to gain a hold. ​Unique ferns and algae live around the arches and cave entrances. Birds, insects and fish flourish in the environment, which is also home to the rare short tailed bat, the giant land snail, the cave spider and whio/blue duck. The Oparara Basin is a great spotted kiwi sanctuary. Source; DOC.

Kohaihai.

​The Heaphy Track.
For many generations, Golden Bay Māori travelled to central Westland, where they sought pounamu (greenstone) for tools, weapons and ornaments. They followed a trail over Gouland Downs from the Aorere to the Whakapoai (Heaphy River) and also travelled the treacherous coast north of the Heaphy River mouth, risking wave-swept beaches and rounding huge bluffs using flax ladders. The track is named after Charles Heaphy. In 1846, while a draughtsman with the New Zealand Company, he and Thomas Brunner, a surveyor with the company, were the first Europeans to traverse the coastal portion of the modern track. At the time, they were on an exploratory trip along the west coast with a Māori guide, Kehu. Source; Web.

Karamea Township

Sources: West Coast New Zealand History website. Karamea Estuary information panel. Stuff May 2020, Department of Conservation.

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NORTH WESTLAND