rom Westport either turn inland and travel on to Nelson via Inangahua, named for and once famed for its whitebait, or continue north along State Highway 67 to Karamea, a relatively easy drive of 98 kilometres.

The Karamea road offers a variety of scenery, ranging from forested to broad surf-swept beaches, but the flax, nikau palms and cabbage trees growing almost along its entire length give it a sort of visual unity. Apart from the climb over the Karamea Bluff it hugs sea level throughout the entire distance along the coastal strip jammed between mountains and sea. It also runs through what is, along with Fiordland and the Urewera country, some of the remotest and least populated land in New Zealand. This remoteness and emptiness has, however, had its compensations, preserving the scenic beauty of the region from the sometimes questionable 'development' that has been the bane of other areas closer to populated centres.

'Winterless' Karamea benefits from a warm micro-climate which gives the area some of the West Coast's best climate and supports a flourishing dairying industry along with some horticulture. Although much has been made of building a connecting road to Nelson this has so far come to naught, so to get there you must either walk by way of the Heaphy or Wangapeka tracks or take the road back south to Westport, then northwest through Inangahua junction.

If the prospect of a five-day walk doesn't exactly fill you with rapture, at least consider tackling the 15-kilometre coastal section at the south end of the Heaphy Track, which is just up the coast from Karamea, at the Kohaihai River.

The highlight of the Karamea area is undoubtedly the Oparara Valley which is reached by way of a logging road which runs off State Highway 67, nine kilometres north of Karamea. Here there is a spectacular assemblage of caves, canyons and arches carved from the natural limestone and backed by granite ranges. At Honeycomb Hill, in a 13-kilometre labyrinth of caves, one of the most important assemblages of bird fossils has been found. These caves and crevices acted over thousands of years - 16,000 it is estimated - as a huge trap for hapless birds which fell through pot-holes and also for the carcasses of those swept in by streams.

So far the bones of some 52 species have been identified, of which 26 are those of species now extinct. Also identified from the caves have been the remains of lizards, frogs and land snails.

Living creatures also occur in the caves, the most imposing of which is probably the gradungular spider with a span of some 12 centimetres which preys on cave weta. There are also native fish such as the kokopu and the koaru, now rare elsewhere, to be found in the streams of the Oparara Valley.

If you wish to visit the caves, apply to the ranger at Karamea for a permit and go properly equipped. Also, watch out for trucks on the logging road.