The West Coast is a narrow strip of land between the Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea on New Zealand's South Island. The Maori came here first for greenstone, then the Pakeha arrived chasing gold, then coal, then they felled the bush to farm the land. But there is still plenty left to see: glaciers, ancient rainforest, high mountains, wild rivers and lakes — and, of course, rain. Lots of rain.
The Coast is one of New Zealand's least populated regions and one of its most dramatic. The mountains rise almost straight out of the sea, forcing warm Tasman air upward into some of the highest rainfall in the country. That moisture feeds dense podocarp forests, milky glacier-fed rivers and a landscape that feels genuinely untouched.
