Golden Bay Sights
Links to Information on Sights
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Visit the "What to See and Do" page for more sights and activities. | |
| Te Waikoropupu (Pupu) Springs |
Bainham Store | Salisbury Bridge | Puponga Farm Park |
For years now, Golden Bay has worn the tag of New Zealand's 'best kept secret'. And while the whole country cashes in on the tourist industry's hard sell, beautiful Golden Bay quietly goes about its business.
Despite the region’s large population increase in the past 30 years, mainly thanks to city folk who have bought up sub-divided family farms and stone and swamp country, this tiny rural community is still reliant on the seasons for its livelihood.
Golden Bay is a stretch of fertile river plains and valleys which are hived off from the rest of the South Island by a chain of steep and rugged mountains. Unless you’re a migrating whale, you don’t pass through Golden Bay on your way to anywhere.
There is only one road in and one road out and that’s over the mighty Takaka Hill, a limestone and marble giant which features 290 bends on its 25km ribbon of bitumen.
So you’re not a whale and you don’t want to drive? Then fly, from Wellington (on the southern tip of the North Island) or Nelson, which is the main centre of what New Zealander’s affectionately call “the top of the south”.
Or take a water taxi around that beautiful coastline which beats time to the walking track around the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. This park marks Golden Bay’s eastern border and disappears into the fringes of the neighbouring Nelson district.
In fact, Golden Bay is surrounded by national parks, the most obvious being the Abel Tasman, which links you up with the world east of the Bay. You can walk the track, canoe the coastline or hunt the hills. Homely cabins offer shelter from the weather and respite for the feet, while “Maori bunks” (great long stretches of vinyl-covered bed) deliver rest for weary bones.
Behind Golden Bay are the Arthur, Anatoki and Waingaro Ranges, all of which promise neverending wilderness and challenging walks.
To the west there’s the Aorere, which leads to the Heaphy Track (Golden Bay’s only direct access to the South Island’s
wild mid-west coast), and the Kahurangi National Park, through which you can walk for days until you are no longer anywhere near Golden Bay - or else you can walk for an hour, or two, or three or more through mossy forests and the heartwarming silence of the bush.
These are the big walks - the treks. Golden Bay also offers gentler hikes.
Visitors can wander through superb pockets of native bush to the Wainui Falls, tiptoe behind deer across the snowtops which frame the glacial Cobb Valley or simply drive out to the frontier country of Westhaven.
