Gentle Annie Seaside Accommodation and Camping Ground

Continuing on the path beyond the Point, a maze sculpted out of native bush winds down to a mostly deserted beach, and this 15-minute amble gives you a hint of the top walking in the locality. Short trails leave from Gentle Annie to the Mokihinui Estuary and onwards to a small but sometimes fierce waterfall. If you fancy something longer, head to Ngakawa (20 minutes’ drive) for walks and bike rides along the Charming Creek Trail, a former mining and timber-felling tramway through gorges and tunnels taking you to the mighty Mangatini Falls. For further combos of mining heritage and top scenery, the Old Ghost Road starting 10 minutes away in Seddonville leads hikers and bikers through the Glasgow Mountains past ghost towns and abandoned workings, and just outside Karamea (an hour) you can join the Heaphy Track through the Karamea National Park, taking in the honeycombed limestone of the Oparara Arches. You can try panning for gold down on the beach yourself, fish for snapper and butterfish from the shore, take surfing lessons or hire boards down in Westport (45 minutes) or visit the Cape Foulwind Seal Colony, an hour away. The Mokihinui River’s good for watery recreations, too: fish for brown trout and herring right from the site, or kayak and tube your way up or down.