Reefton, the Coast's only inland town is nestled in the Inangahua River valley between the rugged and spectacular Victoria and Paparoa ranges. It is centrally located at a hub of state highway access into the Coast, north from Murchison, Nelson and Blenheim and east from Christchurch. The highway system also offers easy access further north up the West Coast to Westport and Karamea, and south to Greymouth and South Westland.

Travel Distances

History

The town owes its origins to the discovery of gold bearing quartz reefs in the locality in the late 1860s when the gold rush fever hit the West Coast. The town itself became established about 1870 and immediately became an entrepreneurial and prosperous place.

With mining came technology and innovation, and in August 1888 Reefton became the first place in New Zealand and the Southern Hemisphere to have a public supply of electricity, even before the fashionable suburbs of London and New York.

Reefton Today

Many of the original and valued heritage buildings with their distinctive wooden architecture still service the area 130 years on, including a number of shops on Reefton's main street, Broadway, which have been carefully adapted for today's use. The town's heritage walk takes you past many of these buildings including the Reefton School of Mines, Reefton Courthouse and Oddfellows Hall.

Reefton is part of the Buller District, incorporating the northern West Coast area from Punakaiki north to Karamea.

Climate

The summers in the Reefton and surrounding Inangahua area are hot and dry with frosty winters. Rainfall is a moderate 2200 mm per annum - it's the champagne for the rain forest.

Education Facilities

Reefton has two schools providing education for our youth, and the Reefton Playcentre providing early childhood learning.

Reefton Area School is a friendly, helpful and caring school, catering for children from Year 1 to Year 13. It offers a range of education facilities including a modern resource centre, swimming pool, gym, auditorium and comprehensive programme.

Along with offering core curriculum subjects, Reefton Area School offers courses linked to both industry and tertiary providers. Students are encouraged to participate fully in community activities and to take pride in their Reefton heritage. The school’s role is to develop pathways for students so that they participate effectively in whatever field they should choose.

Sacred Heart, a co-educational Catholic full primary school, caters for students from new entrants to Year 8. The school has three classrooms, a new administration block, paraplegic toilet and shower facilities, sick bay, toilets, resource room, a new library, wheelchair accessible adventure playground and large playing fields.

The school encourages community and family involvement in the students education, liturgical celebrations, fund raising, field trips and special projects.

Reefton Playcentre provides an early childhood Te Whariki based curriculum in a warm and friendly environment, encouraging creativity and providing an extended learning program with sixteen areas of play and parent involvement.

Visitor Services

There is a wide range of services in the town to meet the needs of visitors. Reefton can accommodate up to 300 people in accommodation options to suit all budgets - motels, hotels, bed and breakfasts, backpackers, a motor camp, and Department of Conservation camping areas. You can dine in one of the town's cafes or eateries, browse through our art gallery, search for a bargain in the second-hand and curio stores, ponder over the selecting of a gift or momento to take home, find an interesting novel or book on West Coast history, or select a piece of our locally produced craft.

The friendly staff in the town's impressive visitor centre can provide assistance, help, and advice on planning your stay in Reefton or planning your future travel. An attraction in it's own right, the Reefton Visitor Centre contains innovative high quality natural, historical and recreation displays along with a range of souvenir and craft products for purchase.

Recreation & Sport

There are many recreational and sporting amenities within the town itself that include a wonderful 12 hole golf course in a country setting, a heated indoor swimming pool open usually 9 months of the year, squash courts, indoor netball and basketball court, tennis courts and children's play parks. A world class roller park has recently been built by the community, suitable from learners to the advanced and has some great features including a clover bowl. The Inangahua River in the heart of the town offers great trout fishing and summer time swimming alongside the park like setting of the Strand

Victoria Conservation Park

Reefton is surrounded by Victoria Conservation Park, New Zealand's largest of 180,000 ha, named after the granitic Victoria Ranges that run almost its entire length. The park was established for its magnificent and diverse beech forests and the many remnant 19th and 20th century historic gold and coal mining sites. The North Westland Wildlife Corridor, a continuous set of reserves and other conservation land that allows wildlife to move from the coast to the Southern Alps is a distinctive feature.

Outdoor Activities

The Park offers a broad and interesting range of outdoor opportunities that includes remote experience and challenging back country tramping, leisurely walking along the network of historic tracks, great mountain biking as well as a range of four-wheel driving opportunities. Deer hunting is possible in many places and during the season there is superb trout fishing in the area's rivers and streams. It's diverse forest types including beech and beech / podocarp mixes, abundant birdlife, and good access, make the park a recreational and sporting paradise.

Contact the Reefton Visitor Centre for more information on any activities and prices.