The West Coast region
The West Coast is one of the administrative regions of New Zealand, located on the west coast of the South Island, and is one of the more remote and most
sparsely populated areas of the country. It is made up of three districts: Buller, Grey and Westland. The principal towns are Westport,Greymouth and
Hokitika
The West Coast region reaches from Kahurangi Point in the north to Awarua Point in the south, a distance of 600 km. To the west is the Tasman Sea and to
the east are the Southern Alps. Much of the land is rugged, although there are coastal plains around which much of the population resides.
The land is very scenic, with wild coastlines, mountains, and a very high proportion of native bush, much of it native temperate rain forest. The west
coast is the only part of New Zealand where significant tracts of lowland forest remain-elsewhere, for instance on the Canterbury Plains and in the Firth
of Thames, they have been almost completely destroyed for settlement and agriculture. Scenic areas include the Haast Pass, Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers,
the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki and the Heaphy Track.
The region has a very high rainfall due to the prevailing northwesterly wind pattern and the location of the Southern Alps - these two elements give rise
to heavy orographic precipitation.The flip side to this is the rain shadow effect which is responsible for the relatively arid climate of the Canterbury
Plains on the other side of the Southern Alps............
Adopted from and read more at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_New_Zealand |
