4WD Tracks in West Coast NZ

The West Coast is New Zealand's wild west — 600 km of coastline backed by the Southern Alps, with the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers as anchors. The 4WD network here is dominated by DOC access roads, forestry tracks, and the back-country routes that probe the Alps from the western side.

The Haast district in the south and the Westland Tai Poutini National Park in the north are the two main zones. The Haast area has the most remote and least-driven 4WD routes in NZ — the Cascade Road south to Jackson Bay, the Haast Pass approaches, and the coastal back-roads around Big Bay. The Westland zone focuses on glacial valley access and West Coast beech forest tracks.