Kawatiri Coastal Trail

About

Kawatiri Coastal Trail is a 55 km family friendly grade 2 cycling and walking heritage trail between Charleston and Westport in the northern West Coast.

Story

We are not going to be just another bike track! We are over-endowed with spectacular wild coastal views as a strong point of difference from other NZ cycle trails. Our stunning scenery includes a great variety of sub-tropical native plant groups plus uber-accessible wildlife including Seals, Penguins, Weka and Kiwi set into highly interesting geology and stunning landforms. But most importantly we delve into fascinating and significant Maori history dating back to AD1300, as part of the ancient Maori West Coast Pounamu trail. Our European history is marked following the historic 1860’s gold rush route from Westport south to Charleston. Our key goal is to promote and elevate heritage and cultural values through recognition of our significant past history along the trail route. We are driven by volunteers representing each trailside community who originally got together in Oct 2015 and are now formalised as Charleston-Westport Coastal Trail Trust. We are an incorporated society with charitable status and our members include experts and industry specialists in Geology, Landscape, Geotechnical construction, Earthmoving, Financial and Investment management, and Marketing. We are in the process of starting a comprehensive $100,000 feasibility study with a route survey and engineering assessment, required to provide design and accurate costings for trail construction and aim to get cracking building this 54 kilometre adventure as early as June 2018.