Thursday 29th March 2007. Franz Josef to Otira. New Zealand.

The Alpine Faultline runs down the backbone of the Southern Alps and here I am sitting on one of the biggest faultlines in the world.

These Alps are the fastest growing mountain range in the world, growing at about 20mm per year. Learning today just how active this faultline is makes me wonder even more about just how deep I went deep under that ice yesterday in this earthquake zone.

Our first stop this morning is in the town of Hari Hari, a once thriving logging town. Our stop is at the Guy Menzies memorial. Menzies was the first man to fly solo across the Tasman Sea landing near Hari Hari in a swamp with his bi-plane flipping over. Menzies life came to an end as a fighter pilot in World War II.

So here I am exploring the West Coast by bus. This is a 600km strip of nature in the raw boasting New Zealand's highest mountains, lowest glaciers, most pristine forests, wildest coastline, most deserted beaches and clearest rivers.

Seldom more than 30km wide, New Zealanders call this primeval region The Coast. Plunging from cloud-piercing mountains to rugged beaches, the Coast is both defined and isolated remaining New Zealand's final frontier set deep with the pioneering spirit of self-reliance and friendliness for which Coasters are famed.

Next stop is Pukekura the smallest town in the West Coast with a resident population of just two and where at The Bushman's Centre you will find the only place in New Zealand where you can both eat and sit on Possum at the same time.

Possum were introduced in the 1800's to establish a fur trade and since then they have gone on to become a major pest, destroying huge areas of native forest and killing many indigenous animals.

And today, I dine on possum pie whilst sitting on cafe seats that are lined with possum fur.

We then head down to a deserted beach on the Tasman to get a sense of the isolation of the West Coast. From here it is off to Hokitika famed for its greenstone carving.

Te Wahipounamu means Place of Greenstone and the early Maori were the first Coast travellers collecting the sacred pounamu from river beds up and down the West Coast. The Maori established trails along the coast and into the rivers beyond, many of which have become roads and walking tracks for today's travellers.

Okarito, in South Westland was the first part of New Zealand ever seen by a European...and that was Abel Tasman in 1642. Captain Cook described it as "wild, craggy and desolate" in 1770.

When gold was discovered in most West Coast rivers it brought a rush that led to the establishment of towns like Hokitika. These early settlers soon discovered other natural resources with an abundance of coal, forests and fish. The first commercial sawmill was opened in Hokitika in 1865 and in 1866 the first coal was exported.

When the gold rush wanned, mining continued the areas prosperity well into the twentieth century along with the flourishing timber industry...both necessary to meet the energy and building needs of a young nation. New towns sprang up all over the coast...many of them are now ghost towns and today mining and tourism are the economic backbone of the West Coast.

Now a centre for the arts Hokitika was once the largest town on the West Coast where during the gold rush boom of the 1860's over 800kg of gold was being shipped monthly to Melbourne. Located by the sea at the mouth of the Hokitika River, it remains the largest town in the Westland District.

This is a pleasant frontier town where the Crooked Mile still advertises talking movies like this was something new. It is a town with some nice early twentieth century buildings and it is trying hard to re-establish its waterfront in what was once a bustling port. From the stunning Maori inspired benches to the concrete armchair, you are welcome to sit and contemplate the world here by the Tasman Sea...Hokitika is charming! and I lunch at Preston's Bakery, a family firm feeding locals since the gold rush put this area on the map.

Our next stop is in Kumara for another West Coast delight, snowflake ice-cream.

Tonight I am staying in the ghost town of Otira which was once an important staging post in the link between Greymouth and Christchurch. Otira is a tiny former railway settlement whose sole existence depended on the railways.

Stage coaches ran over Arthur's Pass from 1866 until 1923 navigating the sombre Otira Gorge. However when the Otira Rail Tunnel opened on August 4th 1923 it formed the last link in the rail system joining the east and west coasts of New Zealand's South Island. The Otira Tunnel was then the largest tunnel in the British Empire and the seventh largest in the world at five and a quarter miles long with a drop of 850ft from the Arthur's Pass end to the Otira end.

Oh yes...and Otira is the town with the highest rainfall in New Zealand.