Getting Oriented in Upper South Island and the West Coast

In the northeast are the myriad waterways of the Marlborough Sounds. Heading south, you come to sunny Marlborough wine country. From Blenheim, the main town here, State Highway 1 travels south along the eastern coast, a narrow stretch between mountains and ocean to Kaikoura, then continues south through Canterbury farmland to Christchurch. Heading west, a series of forest-covered ranges separates Blenheim and Nelson. West of Nelson you’ll pass through Motueka to Abel Tasman National Park and Golden Bay. Heading southwest on State Highway 6 brings you to big mountain country—Nelson Lakes and Kahurangi national parks—then through the Buller Gorge to the West Coast and south to the highest peaks of the Southern Alps. The highway follows the plains between the alps and Tasman Sea, passing settlements of Westport, Hokitika, and Greymouth before reaching glacier and world heritage country: Franz Josef and Fox glaciers in Westland/Tai Poutini National Park.

• Kaikoura. This is a rocky strip of Pacific coastline where whales breach just off shore, seals and dolphins play, and snowcapped mountains rise almost from the sea.
• Marlborough. This region is all about vineyards, wide shingle riverbeds, and the sheltered, forest-lined waterways of the Marlborough Sounds.
• Nelson and the Northwest. The northern coast encompasses the massive sand spit, Farewell Spit, the sheltered, golden-sand bays of the Abel Tasman National Park, and the wide expanse of Tasman Bay. A little inland, the economic heart of the region beats with farming, horticulture, viticulture, and forestry. To the south and west, from these productively intensive lowlands the landscape changes, to the mountains, beech forests, and glacial-formed lakes of Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes National Parks.
• The West Coast. The Coast is a long narrow strip of land hemmed between the Tasman Sea and the Southern Alps. Landscapes encompass subtropical rain forests in the north and icy glaciers in the south, where Westland/Tai Poutini National Park is a part of the massive Te Wahipounamu/South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.