Savanna-la-Mar is the largest town in western Jamaica and the capital of Westmoreland parish. ‘Sav, ’ as it is locally known, offers few attractions.
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The port of Westport made its fortune in coal mining, though the main mine is at Stockton, 38km north. The town itself is of little interest, but is a good base for active adventures in the Buller Gorge and Charleston ranges. Otherwise head north to relaxed Karamea (for the Heaphy Track), or continue south to the Punakaiki Rocks. Fans of Animal Planet should check out the seal colony west of town.
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This bay (16km west of St Ann’s) has a modicum of hotels and tourist facilities, though the place is far from sophisticated. Divers, however, find much to celebrate. This one-street village stretches along the A1 for 3km, merging with Salem to the east. Several small beaches are supposedly public, although most are the backyards for a few all-inclusive resorts. If you’re hankering for a dip in the big blue, head to the white-sand Cardiff Hall Public Beach (admission free; 7am-sunset), opposite the gas station. There is also a somewhat twee fisherman’s beach in Salem, east of Runaway Bay, where the occasional sound-system party is staged on the weekend.
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Literally the biggest highlights of the Westland Tai Poutini National Park are the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Nowhere else at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the ocean.
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East of Ironshore the A1 dips and rises past coastal scrubland, residential estates and several colonial-era great houses.
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The Western Bay of Plenty stretches along the coast from Waihi Beach to Maketu and inland as far as the Kaimai Range. This is where New Zealanders have come on holiday for generations, lapping up salt-licked activities and lashings of sunshine.
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If you’re looking for a brief escape from the fun-in-the sun ethos of Negril, spend an hour or two down the caves at Roaring River Park (cave tours adult/child US$15/8; 8am-5pm). This natural beauty spot contains mineral waters that gush up from the ground in a meadow full of water hyacinths and water lilies. A stone aqueduct takes off some of the water, which runs turquoise-jade. Steps lead up a cliff face gashed by the mouth of a subterranean passage lit by electric lanterns (you can enter the caves only with guides from the cooperative). Inside, a path with handrails leads down to chambers full of stalagmites and stalactites. Take your swimming gear to sit in the mineral spring that percolates up inside the cave, or in the ‘bottomless’ blue hole outside the cave. Harmless fruit bats roost in the recesses.
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Wellington Region New Zealand
If your New Zealand travels thus far have been all about wilderness and lonesome, one-horse towns, rock into Wellington for a big-city hit. Art-house cinema, hip bars, designer boutiques, live music rooms and late-night coffee shops – it’s all in ‘Windy Welly’. Wellingtonians are geographically isolated and look inwards for inspiration, a habit that fosters a red-hot arts scene. Everyone here seems to be in a band and looks a tad depleted, like they smoke and drink too much and spend their time molesting canvasses and scribbling poetry….except for the politicians of course. NZ’s capital city manages to strike a balance between creative exuberance and an institutional mindset crucial to the day-to-day running of the country. The city is neither altogether bohemian, nor overloaded with bureaucratic stuffed shirts.
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East of Ocho Rios, habitations begin thinning out along the A3. Several beaches lie hidden below the cliffs; notable among them is Tower Isle, 8km east of Ocho Rios.
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Wellington New Zealand
Hemmed in by hillsides around a magnificent harbour, Wellington is NZ’s capital. Locked in an age-old struggle for hip supremacy with Auckland, ‘Welly’ prides itself in its cultural and artistic wealth. Given the relatively small population, there’s an astounding number of quality restaurants, cafés, bars, galleries, shops and theatres here. And it’s certainly better-looking than Auckland: timber Victorian houses terrace up steep valleys from the waterfront in an almost San Franciscan manner.
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