Westport: All's fair at Foulwind

You could say that Cape Foulwind is where New Zealand history began. Legend has it that the rugged outcrop jutting into the Pacific Ocean a few kilometres south of Westport was where the great navigator Kupe first sighted Aotearoa.

It was also where Abel Janszoon Tasman first saw the coast of the land he called New Zealand - although he didn't spell it quite that way.

The other great explorer in our history, James Cook, gave the cape the name it now bears to mark his dissatisfaction with the wind patterns.

And what do you suppose Kupe, Tasman and Cook were really hoping for when they sighted this inhospitable outcrop?

I'll tell you what. Food. After months at sea living on withered kumara, weevilly biscuits and rotten salt pork, they'd have have been dying for something fresh and tasty to eat. But would they have found it? Not easily.

Food is what we were after, too, but we were a lot luckier than those earlier visitors.

Our trip from Auckland to Westport took only three hours. And on arrival we didn't have to worry about how to get ashore, find something edible, or avoid warlike locals.

Instead, we drove off in comfort and discovered, on a tiny peninsula jutting out near the base of the cape, just what hungry old Kupe would have been dying for: the Bay House, perennial winner of the award for the best restaurant on the West Coast, where you can sip superb espresso while watching mad surfers riding into Tauranga Bay beach.

Right next door is the Great Beach House bed and breakfast, sitting on the neck of the peninsula, with stunning sea views south to Nine Mile Beach and north to Cape Foulwind.

If the view inspires you, it's easy to wander round the cape on a gentle walkway following the track of an old railway line built to carry millions of tonnes of granite quarried from the cape and used to put the port into Westport.

Starting at the Cape Foulwind lighthouse, it meanders along the clifftops past magnificent seascapes of jagged rocks and endlessly pounding surf, a colony of New Zealand fur seals, a memorial to Tasman and lots of cheeky weka, before ending back at Tauranga Bay.

Now the key thing with a trip like this is selecting the right food to go with each adventure. For instance, mixing coq au vin with the history of Cape Foulwind would be like drinking syrah with whitebait. Ughh.

So it was lucky that the night we arrived Bay House chef Luke Macann was holding one of his monthly food evenings, called Where the Wild Foods Are, using the sort of ingredients that would have been available when Tasman made his landfall.

If the resourceful Dutch had a great cook with them they could certainly have tried to produce the delicious opening offering of Tauranga Bay broth made from puha, and seaweed gathered off the beach.

There's also no reason why they couldn't have produced the stunning second course - the highlight for me - of crispy whitebait with a salad made from tutaekuri potatoes, local greens, watercress pesto and kawakawa oil.

And, I suppose, with a bit of initiative, the starving crew of the Heemskerck could even have whipped up something like Luke's mutton-bird ravioli, and, if they managed to shoot a moa and collect some eggs, try the ostrich tataki on a wild chive omelette.

I doubt there would have been rhubarb growing wild on the coast in 1642, so they wouldn't have had much hope of producing the wild rhubarb tart we enjoyed for dessert. Still, even without the rhubarb, a wild-food menu like that would have been the stuff of Tasman's dreams.

Next day we were off in pursuit of a more recent slice of the West Coast's history, coalmining, so the ideal start was the Bay House's Blackball Breakfast.

Eggs, homemade hash brown and - the stars of the show - some fabulous black pudding and spicy chorizo sausage from the Blackball Salami Company are just the things to set you up for a cold, hard day at the coalface (metaphorically speaking).

They've been mining coal on the coast since the 1860s but probably the best place to get a feel for its story is the abandoned settlement of Denniston - setting for Jenny Pattrick's acclaimed novel The Denniston Rose - in the foothills of the Southern Alps.

Though barely remembered now, the town was famous in its day as the starting point of the Denniston Incline, an engineering marvel which from 1879 to 1967 carried vast quantities of coal down 1.8km of incredibly steep mountainside to the railway below.

The weight of each full wagon running down the slope was used to haul the replacement empty wagon back up to the top, a stroke of genius which saw it acclaimed as "the eighth wonder of the world".

At its peak, Denniston had a population of 1500, with a swimming pool, picture theatre, tennis courts and, of course, a pub. Today it is a ghost town of abandoned wagons and pithead towers, giant wheels and stark chimneys, sitting sadly amid the swirling mists, populated by lost souls and untold stories.

There is a small information centre at the top of the incline and the Friends of the Hill maintain a museum in the old Denniston High School.

But the best way to get a feel for the lively town that once thrived in this wasteland is to visit the Coaltown Museum in Westport. It has a wonderful video on Denniston as well as great displays on the history of mining and the district in general.

Then, if you want to see the real thing, the Stockton opencast mine, 35km north of Westport, is still going strong, sending two million tonnes of coal a year down a 2.2km aerial ropeway to the railhead at Ngakawau.

Finally, after a hard day digging into the mining industry, what could be better than a glass or two of the very fine beers produced at the Miners Brewery in Westport? You can get their Miners Draught in most local pubs and their Green Fern organic lager has spread as far north as Auckland.

The evening seems a good time to catch up with the local arts scene because the Bay House also functions as a gallery.

There's a growing artistic community on the coast, attracted by the relatively low property prices, tranquility and beautiful scenery.

Luke's partner, Anna Leary, won the inaugural Toss Woollaston Visual Arts Scholarship, and her paintings are among those regularly on display.

There's at least a dozen other galleries in the region. Among the most interesting are Brian Holmewood's gallery right beside the port, Utopia Pottery and Wood, Westwood Gallery, Merv Jury's garden sculptures in Granity, and Hector Pottery.

The ideal accompaniment for all that art is one of chef Luke's weekly Pacific Rim Cuisine Classes, where you can learn how to make - and then eat - exquisite delicacies which look as good as they taste. Anyone who can make me feel confident of making my own sushi must be an artist.

Our final day is a chance for a leisurely look at some of the region's scenic beauty with its amazing mix of desolate coasts, snowcapped mountains, ancient forests, mysterious caves and terrifying gorges.

In the interests of getting into a suitably casual mode we loaf around the Great Beach House until the delicious smell of freshly ground coffee and freshly baked bread - host Michael Allan's speciality - signals that breakfast is ready.

After that the biggest problem is deciding what to see. Less than an hour to the south are the famous pancake rocks and blowholes of Punakaiki.

About an hour and a half to the north is the amazing Oparara Basin with its Honeycomb Hill Caves.

But in the relaxed spirit of the day we just potter up the coast enjoying some of the intriguing towns, stony rivers and majestic beaches.

The region is full of places with terrific names, such as Chatterbox Creek, Granity and the rather harsh Gentle Annie, many of them great spots to collect gnarled bits of driftwood and marvellously tactile river stones, and all wildly beautiful.

The Charming Creek Walkway, at Ngakawau, wanders alongside a, well, charming creek, passing waterfalls and relics of mining, milling and rail.

In the town of Hector - named, like the rare Hector's dolphin, after Sir James Hector, first curator of the Colonial Museum - you'll find a statue of the eponymous dolphin which is found in quite large numbers off the coast.

At the entrance to Westport's port the raging surf and rugged rocks make a poignant setting for plaques commemorating mariners lost off this wild coast.

And inland, when the clouds part, there are stunning views of the majestic Southern Alps.

So what food do you think would go with that? Hmmm. How about a farewell taste of the coast - Bay House seafood chowder, thick with fish, squid, mussels and shrimps. Delicious.

It's a final reminder of what a beautiful - and tasty - place this is, and yet one which is largely ignored by tourists.

Pat O'Dea, mayor of Buller district for 21 years - he also runs the local vege shop - reckons the district spends more than most promoting its attractions yet "90 per cent of tourists pass us by. It's a bit frustrating because we've got a lot more to offer".

That's true. It's also a bit ironic considering that you could say the coast was where New Zealand's first tourists arrived, hundreds of years ago.

* Jim Eagles visited Westport as the guest of the Bay House, the Great Beach House and Tourism West Coast.



Getting there

Air New Zealand has daily flights to Westport from Auckland (via Wellington) and you can get return fares for as low as $244. Air West Coast has regular flights between Wellington and Westport for $229 return.

Westport Hire has rentals which you can collect and drop off at the airport. The basic charge is $60 plus $15 insurance a day. Contact them at 03 789 5038.

FOOD

The Bay House has an excellent website.

It can also be contacted on dine@thebayhouse.co.nz or 03 789 7133.

Luke Macann's Pacific Rim Cuisine Classes special food nights are $50 a head.

The Blackball Salami Company is at blackballsalami@xtra.co.nz or 03 732 4111.

The Miners Brewery is at miners@inspire.co.nz or 03 789 6253.

ACCOMMODATION

The Bay House organises cheap escape packages with bed and breakfast places for dinner, bed and breakfast. The latest winter escape, which sadly for you has just ended, was from only $150 double. Details are on their website.

The Great Beach House B&B charges $90 for bed and breakfast. It can be contacted at myallan@actrix.co.nz or 03 789 5225.

THINGS TO DO

You'll find details of the Cape Foulwind Walkway at Buller Walks.

Coaltown Museum is in Queen St, Westport, and can be contacted at coaltown@xtra.co.nz or 03 789 8204. Admission is $7 for adults.

There's a Buller Coalfields Heritage Trail at Heritage Trail.

The Friends of the Hill Society has a webpage on Denniston at Denniston.

You can find details of the region's arts and crafts at Arts & Crafts Galleries.

Oparara Basin Guided Tours are based in Karamea.

They are on the web at Adventures NZ.

and can be contacted at helicharters@baycity.co.nz or 03 782 6111.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Tourism West Coast website.

The Westport Information Office can be contacted at Westport, westport.info@xtra.co.nz or 03 789 6658.