Nelson, Marlborough & the West Coast

The Dutch navigator Abel Tasman anchored in Golden Bay in December 1642, and a clash with Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri killed four of his crew; he left without landing. James Cook later used Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound as his base on several voyages. Several iwi of Te Tau Ihu, the top of the South Island, held the north, and Ngāti Toa under Te Rauparaha conquered much of it in the 1820s and 30s. On the West Coast, Poutini Ngāi Tahu guarded the region's great treasure, pounamu (greenstone), carried the length of the country for tools and ornaments.

The New Zealand Company founded Nelson in 1841–42. In 1843 a dispute over the company's claim to land in the Wairau Valley led settlers to try to arrest the Ngāti Toa chiefs Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata; in the Wairau Affray that followed, 22 British settlers and four Māori were killed. Blenheim grew as a farming town on the Wairau plains.

Gold changed the West Coast in the 1860s: rushes at Hokitika and along the rivers filled the coast with miners, and Hokitika briefly became one of the country's busiest ports. Coal followed, mined at Denniston, Stockton and around Greymouth, and the coast's mining history is scarred by disasters, from the Brunner Mine explosion of 1896 to the Pike River Mine explosion of 2010, which killed 29 men. Under the Ngāi Tahu settlement of the late 1990s, ownership of the region's pounamu was vested in the iwi. In Marlborough, the first commercial sauvignon blanc vines were planted in the 1970s, and the region has since become the heart of the country's wine industry.

The region has two personalities. The sunny north around Nelson and Golden Bay attracts artists, potters, retirees and alternative lifestylers, and Nelson calls itself an arts city; the World of WearableArt show began there in 1987 before moving to Wellington. Motueka and the Moutere hills grow hops and fruit, and seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands arrive for the harvests.

"Coasters", the people of the West Coast, have a reputation for independence, hospitality and suspicion of distant governments, rooted in their mining and timber past. Pubs, whitebaiting and hunting are central, and the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival has served unusual foods to crowds. Hokitika is the centre of pounamu carving, and Māori tradition treats the stone as a taonga (treasure), properly given as a gift.

Marlborough is wine country, with a harvest calendar and a wine and food festival, and the Sounds keep a bach and boat culture.

Nelson and its neighbour Richmond have about 70,000 people between them, and the wider top of the south lives on horticulture, forestry, fishing, tourism and wine. Nelson is one of the country's main fishing ports, and Marlborough's Sounds hold mussel and salmon farms. Blenheim, with about 30,000 people, is the wine capital, and vineyards cover much of the Wairau and Awatere valleys.

The West Coast has only about 32,000 people along several hundred kilometres of coast. Greymouth, Westport and Hokitika are small, and the economy mixes mining, dairy, tourism and conservation. Declining coal, storm damage and long distances to hospitals and services are local worries, as is the argument between conservation and jobs.

Marlborough sauvignon blanc, sharp and aromatic, is the country's biggest wine export, and the region also makes pinot noir, chardonnay and sparkling wine. Nelson's Moutere hills and Waimea plains grow grapes, apples and the hops that supply the country's craft brewers.

The Sounds produce farmed green-lipped mussels, and Havelock calls itself the green-shell mussel capital of the world; salmon is farmed in the same waters, scallops are dredged in parts of the Sounds, and Nelson's fishing fleet lands a wide range of species.

The West Coast's signature is whitebait, the tiny translucent young of native fish, caught in the river mouths in a short legal season and eaten in a whitebait fritter, bound with egg. Venison and wild pork from the hills turn up in pubs, as do West Coast craft beers.

Abel Tasman National Park, the country's smallest national park, is the highlight of the north: the Coast Track, one of the Great Walks, links golden beaches from Mārahau towards Tōtaranui, with Kaiteriteri's beach and Split Apple Rock nearby. Golden Bay beyond has Te Waikoropupū Springs, Wharariki Beach and the long sand arm of Farewell Spit. Nelson has its cathedral hill and cafés, and Nelson Lakes National Park lies inland.

The Marlborough Sounds are best seen on the Queen Charlotte Track, from Ship Cove towards Anakiwa, or by boat from Picton and Havelock. Around Blenheim, the wineries of the Wairau Valley offer tastings, often by bicycle, and the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre shows First World War aircraft. Further south, over the regional boundary in Canterbury, lies Kaikōura, where boats watch sperm whales off the coast.

On the West Coast, Punakaiki's Pancake Rocks and blowholes sit in Paparoa National Park; the coast also has the Oparara arches in Kahurangi National Park, the Cape Foulwind seal colony near Westport, and the turquoise Hokitika Gorge. In the south, Franz Josef and Fox glaciers descend from the Southern Alps within Westland Tai Poutini National Park; both have retreated, but valley walks and helicopter flights reach them, and Lake Matheson reflects Aoraki / Mount Cook on still mornings.