Free time in Haast?
Looking for some other things to do in your spare time while in Jackson Bay? There’s plenty of walks and sights to see! Check out our favourites below:
Walk the Wharekai Te Kou. This is a lovely easy going 40-minute return walk that takes you from the Jackson Bay township through to Ocean Beach. You can think about the streets that were surveyed off as you walk through and how impossible it would have been to build roads up the steep hill on the right let alone build there. Damp, cold houses were deprived of sunlight blocked by the close surrounding hills. Take a photo of the original town street map in the DOC Kiosk and compare it to where you are as you walk the track.
Tramp the DOC track to Smoothwater This 3–4-hour track takes you into the heart of what was the Smoothwater settlement where around twenty settlers cleared bush & built homes on their 50acre blocks. The Smoothwater River flowed through the settlement and was often in flood leaving saturated land in the damp dark valley
Walk the streets of the Jackson Bay township. Take a photo of the map at the Historic display in the boat shed and take yourself back in time to 1875 as you walk the streets and see where the Government cottages were built to house the settlers when they first arrived, the Post Office, the Royal Hotel and other locations of interest.
Have a bite to eat in the world-famous Jackson Bay Craypot
Wander out on the 85-year-old wharf. Oh for the desperate need of this wharf in 1875 and the settlement may have survived. It was finally built 65 years too late in 1939. Look out to the Tasman Sea, the same ocean that the settlers strained their eyes to see if supply ships were coming. Bring your fishing rod!
Visit Neils Beach named after Neil Carmichael from the Special Settlement. Check out the map at the historic shed display and compare. Walk down to where the Ferry Crossing was and look across the Arawata River to where the track was that settlers would walk heading to or from to the Waiatoto River
Visit the Okuru & Arawata Pioneer Cemeteries where many early settlers and their families were buried & Visit the Okuru roadside grave of 7yr old John Snodgrass
Embark on a Waiatoto River Safari trip up the river with many historic family ties to the Jackson Bay settlement
Drive the roads where the settlements used to be between Haast & Jackson Bay. Follow the Okuru, Turnbull, Waiatoto, Arawata & Jackson Rivers
Visit the Haast DOC Info Centre