Murchison to Karamea

The tour guide we met in James Mackay hut had mentioned that after completing the Heaphy Track their party always stayed at The Last Resort in Karamea, the small town closest to the ocean end of the Heaphy Track.  So after the drive from Murchison to Karamea, we decided to check it out as they had different types of accommodation including basic cabins with shared bathroom and kitchen facilities for NZ$90 (about Cdn$81). The owner convinced us to upgrade to a newer studio with bathroom and kitchenette which she offered to us for NZ$120 instead of the usual NZ$130 and we decided to go for it. (After all we had saved ourselves NZ$35 the night before by tenting instead of staying in a cabin.) 

After checking in, lunch and some catching up on communication, sorting pictures and such, we headed out to the nearby Oparara Valley, a little north of Karamea and then 15 kms down a narrow, windy, hilly gravel road with, of course, several one-lane bridges. The same tour guide had mentioned there were some large limestone arches that were worth seeing. At the end of the gravel road there was a nice DOC trailhead/ parking area with information about the ancient history of the region which was a seabed many, many years ago. We walked the loop trail to the Moria arch and after that the in and out trail to the Oparara arch. The Moria arch is accessed through a cave, with the arch spanning a stream and was definitely worth seeing. The Oparara arch was something else. It’s so massive no picture can properly capture it. It also spans a stream but this arch(way) is 200 m long, 49 m wide and 37 m high; incredible!

Instead of cooking our steak and veggies tonight, we decided to eat out at The Last Resort.  We sat down in the pub area (rather than the dining room), asked the couple beside us what they were having and ordered the same.  It was that night's special, whitebait patties, chips and salad, and apparently whitebait - a type of fish - is a (South Island) West Coast specialty so why not have that.  It was good, and the dessert we ended up having after that was really good as well.

Pedestrian swingbridge crossing the Buller River

Hawks Crag: Highway 6 goes through a cut out in solid rock

Cave to get to the Moria arch

Moria arch

Exiting the Moria arch area through the cave

Oparara arch(way)

The highest part of what we think is the actual arch at the entrance of the cave/archway

The whitebait patties and chips

Cheesecake (very light; more European style) with berry compote, icecream and whipped cream: delicious!