Directions

From Westport, cross the Buller River Bridge and continue on to the road to the airport, Carters Beach, and Tauranga Bay. Look out for the Holcim Cement Plant about 11kms from Westport. You can do the walk from the Lighhouse end to the Tauranga Bay Seal Colony carpark, or vice versa. The Lighthouse Road is a right turn just past the Cement Works. For Tauranga Bay and the Seal Colony, keep left and follow the signs to the Coast. The walk is one-way and you will need to arrange transport at the track end or return along the same walkway.

Cape Foulwind Walkway & Seal Colony Walk

A top ten walk with spectacular ocean views, steeple rocks, and a large year-round fur seal colony.

An excellent track to the viewing platforms overlooking the colony allows wheelchair access and is an easy 10 minute walk.

Best time to see –October when the BIG BULL SEALS return to mate right through to the end of March when the pups are at their most playful.  But the colony is active all year as female fur seals remain all year.

The full track from the Seal Colony is well graded and follows the clifftops – so be sure to take good windproof clothing if it’s windy.  The 1.5 hour coastal walk features pasture, beaches and granite bluffs. The walk offers panoramic views of the cape and the rugged coastline. A side track leads to the Cape Foulwind lighthouse.

If you have non-walkers in your group, get them to drop you at the Lighthouse end, and send them to the superb café at Tauranga Bay, where you can meet them later.

Or if you’ve got some surfing enthusiasts in your group, some of the best surfing on the Coast is right here, at the café end of Tauranga Bay.  The café used to be the Surf Club…..note the old photos on the wall.

Tauranga Bay carpark has picnic tables, great toilet facilities, and a beautiful beach to play on.   It has story boards about the wildlife, history and environment.  Watch out for Weka birds (native flightless Bush Hens).  They are curious, always up for stealing your lunch, and not afraid of people.  If  you don’t watch out, they’ll grab your muffin!

History of this walk

Like many walks and trails in the Buller Region, this one was once part of a coach route between gold mining or other mining towns – this one from Charleston to Westport.

How it got it’s name

Several of our early explorers have had fun naming Cape Foulwind.  In 1642 Abel Tasman the Dutch navigator called it Clyppygen Hoeck (Rocky Corner); Captain Cook an early English explorer, less than impressed with the wind which prevented him from landing, called it FoulWind; and in 1827 the French Dumont Durville called it Les Trois Cloches (the Three Steeples).