A few choice spots and insider tips from genuine Coaster Kim Knight.
● It's not the West Coast. Locals come from "the Coast" and local locals come from Buller, Grey, Westland, etc.
● The whitebait pizza at Hokitika's Fat Pipi's Pizza is a confoundingly good thing. It shouldn't work, but it does and if you don't spend the rest of your life dreaming about it, you are probably a monster.
● Hiring a canoe and paddling up the Porarari River near Punakaiki is about as close to Jurassic Park geography as you'll get without time travel. Take your togs. It's freezing and the sandflies will eat you alive but no pain, no 'gram.
● Buy a beer at Formerly The Blackball Hilton and thumb your nose at those other Hiltons who threatened legal action back when the pub was just called The Blackball Hilton.