Liz Light finds weka, seals and superb scenery at Cape Foulwind.
Weka are fearless and cheeky and hassle us for food as soon as we arrive in the Tauranga Bay car park. These flightless birds, with red-brown feathers, are fun to watch but, even better is coming across a couple of chicks.
The fluffy black chicks, about as big as tennis balls, have giant feet seemingly designed for much bigger birds.
Cape Foulwind, near Westport, is famous for its seals but these big-footed chicks, just a few days old, steal the show.
There are about 200 fur seals in this colony but from the viewing platform on the hill I can see only two - great fat things that look like slugs stretched out on the rocks. But when I take time to look closely I notice some of the smooth brown rocks languidly wave a flipper and others roll over. They have chosen to lie by rocks that provide good camouflage.
There's not much action. Dozing in the sun is the main activity but, periodically, a seal swims in, clambers up rocks and flops down in a favourite sleeping spot.
I visit a couple of weeks before the seals give birth in November. Apparently it's mayhem in the maternity ward when there are 100 or so pups, their mothers and bull seals fighting each other as the males try to round up cows for their harems.
The track meanders along a ridge to the Cape Foulwind Lighthouse, a classic white tower that looks nautically picturesque. Below the track, waves surge back and forth and huge tendrils of kelp swirl and curl to the rhythm.
It's heartening to see little paths in trackside grass, made by penguins and weka, and the characteristic scratching around nesting holes of sooty shearwaters. The Department of Conservation's predator trapping programme has seen an increase in the numbers of little blue penguins, and sooty shearwaters - reduced almost to extinction on the mainland, now successfully nest in this area.
I stop on a hill and look south to Tauranga Bay, a deserted semicircle of beach edged by orderly waves. The West Coast is usually much rougher than this. Captain Cook struck particularly nasty weather when he sailed past in 1770, and was blown wildly off course. He named it Cape Foulwind. It's a cape that bothered other mariners too, so, in 1876, a wooden lighthouse, using a kerosene lamp, was built on top of the cliff. A concrete replacement was built in 1926 and it still shines, keeping sailors safe.
The walk finishes at the base of the lighthouse. And for those who have worked-up a thirst, the Star Tavern is an amble down the road. It has nine beers on tap including four Westport beers brewed by famous-on-the-Coast Paddy Sweeney. The local favourites are Good Bastards, a dark beer, and Green Fern, which is organic. The garden bar has views across Buller Bay and there is a quirky satisfaction in having a drink at New Zealand's closest bar to Australia.
FACT FILE
The Cape Foulwind Walkway: takes 1 1/2 hours. At the lighthouse end, reward yourself with famous West Coast beer at the Star Tavern. At the Tauranga Bay end, The Bay House is one of the best restaurants on the Coast.
Accommodation: Punakaiki Resort is an hour from Cape Foulwind, next to the famous Pancake Rocks. Choose between hotel rooms just above the beach and eco suites. Delightful. Phone (03) 731 1168.
