Oparara Basin in Kahurangi National Park - New Zealand's Biggest Gap Year – BackpackerGuide.NZ
Day 105: Today we are checking out the epic Oparara Basin in the Kahurangi National Park of New Zealand! We’re seeing giant natural arches, caves and wildlife!
Yesterday - Day 104 ➜
Tomorrow – Day 106 ➜
30 Tips for Backpacking in New Zealand ➜
-- About this video --
Today we are seeing some of the most amazing natural features of New Zealand and we bet most of you have never heard of it. We are going to the Oparara Basin in the Kahurangi National Park.
Thanks to the lovely guys at the Rongo Backpackers in Karamea, we borrow the “Rogomobile” and drive down the long and narrow gravel road into the Kahurangi National Park. The drive is like a bush walk for cars as we make our way through the forest. We arrive at the parking area for the Oparara Basin and our options are endless!
First up, we hit the Crazy Paving Cave, a cave which looks like it has a natural pavement. We follow a walkway through into the darkness, crouching through tunnels... It’s quite the adventure (like every day is a New Zealand adventure!)
Next is the Box Cave, named because it’s like a giant box, we guess. This is a huge cave that has many little side rooms and rock formations. It’s like exploring the caves of Waitomo but by yourself and free! Yes, this is one of the free caves in New Zealand!
After exploring some New Zealand caves, next we head to the finale, the Oparara Arches. This takes us on a beautiful bush walk through the Kahurangi National Park alongside rivers and streams flowing over mossy rocks. It’s like a fairy tale forest.
We finally reach the grand finale which is the magnificent Oparara Arches – a giant archway with a river flowing through it! We are in awe of this huge arch in New Zealand! It’s one of the New Zealand attractions not to be missed!
We can’t top that so we call it a day and head back to Rongo Backpackers where tonight is potluck night. Everyone in the hostel makes a dish and shares it with the group.
So what do you think of the Oparara Basin? Would you add it to your New Zealand bucket list?
#NZMustDo #BackpackerGuideNZ #WestCoastNZ #Kahurangi #NewZealand #TravelNewZealand #NewZealandVlog
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-- New Zealand Biggest Gap Year --
365 Days: 365 Activities
BackpackerGuide.NZ is New Zealand’s biggest online travel guide for adventure and budget travel in New Zealand. Join us, as the team behind BackpackerGuide.NZ, Robin and Laura, update the travel guide while taking on 365 Days: 365 Activities in New Zealand! It’s New Zealand’s Biggest Gap Year! We release new videos of the New Zealand backpacking adventure every single day, as well as New Zealand travel tips and 360 videos every Sunday so start making your New Zealand bucket list!
Read more about the Charming Creek Walkway on New Zealand’s biggest guide for backpackers:
-- More about the West Coast and the Kahurangi National Park –
9 West Coast Must-Dos ➜
Kahurangi National Park – Guide for Backpackers ➜
West Coast – Guide for Backpackers ➜
Exploring the Tablelands - Travel New Zealand - Kahurangi National Park
Starting at the Flora Carpark about one hours drive from Nelson city we quickly gained a vantage point over the Kahurangi National Park just above Mt Arthur Hut. From here it was a quick 2 hour climb to the top of Mt Arthur. We even spotted a family with young (~10yrs old) kids doing this walk! We spent two nights out in the park, one at Salisbury Hut, and one at the Upper Grid Iron Shelters. Highly recommended. For more information see:
Music by: TheFatRat - Unity Available at:
Blue creek-Kahurangi national park beginners caving trip 2017 nsg
nelson speleological group run trip aimed at beginners, was a beautiful cave with nice carved marble tubes, a good day out in our beautiful country
Bush and Beyond's Leslie-Karamea-Wangapeka wilderness walk
This is the Venus hut on the Karamea River, deep in the heart of Kahurangi National Park. This is one of the few great wilderness walks left in New Zealand.
100 kilometres in length - it is tracked, but rough in places. A fantastic walk for those with hiking experience. An obstacle course in places.
Very few (if any) other hikers ever encountered on this hike.
Check out our website at: bushandbeyond.co.nz
Kohaihai, West Coast
A travel and tourism guide to Kohaihai aimed at people taking roadtrip holidays around New Zealand. The focus is mainly on providing information for visitors who are self-driving visitors touring around in both cars and camper vans. We look at the camping grounds, accommodation, cafes, scenery and walks in the area. In particular we talk about the Heaphy Track, Nikau Palms walk, the Department of Conservation camping ground, swimming in the Kohaihai River and walking on the beach.
If you’re interesting in getting more detail about walks around Kohaihai you could have a look at this link:
For attractions in the area you could check out:
At roadtripnewzealand we believe that New Zealand is the best worlds best country to tour by car or camper van and we want to share our love of driving holidays with every interested traveller.
For more information about taking selfdrive road trips around through NZ then you have to go to roadtripnewzealand.com and see it all on the map.
roadtripnewzealand.com
roadtripnewzealand.co.nz
That way you can see where everything is when you’re planning your travel itinerary. There’s a bunch of other useful information there about road safety and driving that we hope will be useful for visitors to New Zealand and help keep them safe while they’re here.
Our goal at roadtripnewzealand is to provide the best content on the web for people who are looking for New Zealand’s choicest little places. We don’t focus on places you hear about all the time like Queenstown, Auckland, Rotorua and Milford Sound, we’re more interested in the special little places that make us glad we live in New Zealand. It’s our personal view of our country, what we like and what we love and we hope to give visitors the inside running on the best places to see and the best things to do.
The excellent music is licensed from Alan Ferguson who wrote and performed it and is a total legend.
Buller Top of The West Coast
The Buller District is at the Top of the West Coast
We have four zones to explore and enjoy -- Reefton, Westport, Punakaiki and Karamea
OUR MUST SEE'S -- for heritage, eco, walking, mountain biking and adventure
NEW COALTOWN MUSEUM OPENING APRIL 2013 -- WESTPORT
THE DENNISTON EXPERIENCE -- HERITAGE,TRAIN, INTERACTIVE MINE EXPERIENCE NEAR WESTPORT
WEST COAST SURF -- LEARN TO SURF OR HIRE EQUIPMENT -- NEAR WESTPORT
OPARARA GUIDED TOURS -- CAVE, ECO AND KAYAK ECO TOURS - KARAMEA
UNDERWORLD ADVENTURES -- ADVENTURE CAVING, RAINFOREST TRAIN AND CAVE RAFTING - NEAR WESTPORT
OUTWEST TOURS -- UNIMOG ADVENTURES -- WESTPORT
REEFTON GOLD MINE TOURS -- HERITAGE AND MODERN DAY GOLD MINE TOURS -- REEFTON
WILD RIVERS RAFTING -- RATED NUMBER 1 ACTIVITY ON THE WEST COAST SEPT 2012 BY LONELY PLANET -- NEAR WESTPORT
THE SEAL COLONY -- WALK AND SEALS - NEAR WESTPORT
CHARMING CREEK WALKWAY -- WALK, HERITAGE, ECO - NEAR WESTPORT
PUNAKAIKI'S PANCAKE ROCKS -- ECO TOURS, HORSE RIDING AND KAYAKING NEARBY - PUNAKAIKI
THE TRUMAN TRACK -- PUNAKAIKI
PAPAROA NATIONAL PARK - PUNAKIKI
KAHURANGI NATIONAL PARK -- KARAMEA
THE HEAPHY TRACK -- 4-5DAY WALK, START OR FINISH AT KARAMEA OR NELSON (mountain biking now also available)
WANGEPEKA / FENIAN TRACKS -- KARAMEA
THE OLD GHOST ROAD -- NEWLY OPENED MOUNTAIN BIKING TRACK NEAR WESTPORT
INLAND ADVENTURES -- WHITE WATER RAFTING -- NEAR REEFTON
To name but a few!
With a great range of accommodation and services and with over 80 tourism operators in the Buller District we are worth finding out about! On a budget - no problem there are plenty of free activities and events to come along to!
Travel times
Flight
Wellington -- Westport twice daily 55 mins flight time
Drive
Christchurch to Westport 4HRS
Nelson to Westport 3 HRS
Greymouth to Westport 1 ½ HRS
Drive times within Buller to each of the four zones
Reefton to Westport 1HR
Westport to Karamea 1 ½HRS
Westport to Punakaiki 45MINS
Check us out at buller.co.nz for more information
0512211104; New Zealand; Kahurangi NP; Wangapeka Track; creek off Little Wanganui Saddle; ; TW; 0
Helicharter Karamea offer shuttles and back country access to the NW corner of NZs South Islandd
Heaphy track, biking, shuttle , nelson , karamea bike walk tramp hunt new zealand
Heaphy Track
Heaphy Track (Great Walk), Kahurangi National Park
Karamea Last Resort Sunrise fpv