Okarito

		Okarito

Mt Cook. Tasman Sea

Okarito

An old gold mining town that was one of many along this area of coastline, where the black sands were rich with gold. Five Mile was the biggest of the surrounding towns. Smaller towns at Gillespie's Beach, Three Mile Beach, Hunts Beach, Wanganui Bluffs, Saltwater Lagoon, Waiho River, Canoe Point, Okarito Forks and McDonalds Creek. June 1866, 3,090 people were counted in the vicinity.

Today, Okarito is still a small township. The old wharf shed still remains out at the lagoon against the changing tides and surrounding wetlands abundant with bird life.

The glacial legacy of this stretch of coastline is very obvious with assorted mixtures of sand, gravels and boulders exposed in the coastal cliffs, such as only found in glacial moraines. Minerals such as light greenish chlorite, mica biotite with flakes of feldspar and quartz formed in the intensely folding schist at different depths and intensities of pressure.

Map of Okarito area

Okarito township, beach, wetlands and lagoon. 2004

Old Wharf Shed

Native Grass. Pingao

Okarito Beach

White quartz veins in schist on beach

Moraine face along beach

The Okarito Trig is a 45 min

walk one way, with spectacular

views of Westland National Park,

Okarito and Coastline.

Okarito Forest to Mountains from trig

South Coastline view from trig

towards 3 mile lagoon & 5mile

View of Franz Josef Glacier from trig

Old wharf posts still stand

Last colours of the day

Old wharf posts

Old Wharf Shed

Lagoon views from shed

Okarito Lagoon

The Okarito Lagoon is New Zealand's largest unmodified coastal wetland covering more than 3240 hectares of shallow open water.

For nature enthusiasts, bird watching and photography, this is an amazing place with spectacular views along-side the backdrop of the Southern Alps.

Home to nearly 70 species of birds, the 0karito Lagoon is also the feeding ground for the White Heron (kotuku)

and the Royal Spoonbill, both of which breed in the nearby Waitangiroto Nature Reserve.

To get back into the lagoon's salt-marsh/mud-flats/wet-lands and rainforest river channels that cannot be accessed by foot, there is the Okarito Boat Tours and Okarito Nature Tours Kayaking

I took the Okarito Boat Tours that take you out aboard the Explorer Douglas, a boat designed for quiet cruising, bird watching and photography. This was just absolutely amazing, the quietness and efficiency of the jet motor allowed us to get quite close to the birds without disturbing them to much and move over water only a couple feet deep between the grasses and over mud-flats. Birding was fantastic.

Gliding up onto mud-flats with the motor off to listen and hopefully see the fern-birds, slowly cruise past White Herons fishing out in the lagoon & along the bank edges, little shags sitting drying their wings, Caspian Terns & White-fronted Terns diving for fish, Black Swans, Oystercatchers, Godwits & Gulls on the mud-flats, Royal Spoonbills back deeper in the wetland grasses, Tui, Native Pigeons & Silvereyes amongst the trees are just to name a few of the birds I got to see.

Okarito Boat Tours owners, Swade and Paula, are more than happy to arrange group trips to suit interests and photography along-side their normal cruise options.

This is a unique wetland experience and a must to put on your places to go.