Sabbatical #14: West Coast

“‘What do you fear, lady?’ he asked. ‘A cage’ she said. ‘To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.’” ― The Lord of the Rings The West Coast (Te Tai Poutini) is the most sparsely populated region of New Zealand, with a population of only 33.000 people. At the same time, it is the second-biggest region of the South Island. Yet, it can get rather busy, with thousands of tourists taking the Haast Highway to visit various spots. This will be a longer post, as I have visited many noteworthy places in just four days. There are two main ways to enter the West Coast from the south: via Haast Pass or via Arthur's Pass. The first option was more convenient for my route, but this meant driving almost 300 km from Wānaka to Franz Josef. Due to the windy road, road works and many, many camper vans, it took me 6.5 hours (with a few breaks). I used that time to finally finish The Witcher audiobooks. I liked the saga,…