West Coast Holiday Homes & Accommodation

West Coast holiday homes & houses are as individual as the coasters that live there. The Coast (with a capital C) as it is known, brings the pioneer past together with contemporary life not seen elsewhere in New Zealand. It’s well documented that this rugged scenery of a turbulent Tasman Sea coastline almost immediately rising to a towering mountain range, makes for a somewhat rainy but exhilarating climate, yet it’s a destination on almost every foreign tourist’s itinerary. West Coast holiday homes & houses allow you to live and breathe this remarkable atmosphere.

The West Coast human history is rich with stories of hardy and resolute pioneers beginning with the early Maori prospectors hunting greenstone (nephrite jade), followed by gold miners, coal miners and recently foresters and dairy farmers. An appreciation of these people can be experienced today with the Coaltown Museum in Westport, the Ross Goldfields Heritage Centre in Ross and the Greenstone artefact shops around Hokitika. Take any side road off the main north-south Highway 6 and you’re sure to find interesting characters making a living off the land in their own special way. Chances are that there may even be one or two next door to any of the West Coast holiday homes & houses you might be staying at.

Famous for the spectacular Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, it is a must to at least see them close-hand or join a guide to make the climb. Another option is to view the glaciers from fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter. Nearby Okarito Lagoon is one of the nesting grounds of the rare kotuku, the white heron. There is a wealth of national parks on the Coast including Kahurangi, Paparoa, Arthur’s Pass, Westland and Mount Aspiring giving the keen outdoors person a huge variety of wilderness areas to explore.

Other points of interest include the Punakaiki Rocks near Westport; a bizarre pancake-type rock formation which explodes with spume high into the air on the incoming tide. But almost anywhere on the Coast will inspire you by the splendour of nature and all of it so easy to experience by staying at one of the West Coast holiday homes & houses.