West Coast Press Releases

A community Market Day has spurred Okarito locals to offer a holiday weekend package for two to come to the West Coast and partake in the festivities.

Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers are firmly on the New Zealand tourist map after their recent Glacier Rugby Cup competition generated massive media attention and social media interaction.

Feeling left out of the Rugby World Cup 2011, the Glacier Country Tourism Group devised their own competition and social media marketing strategy to direct the eye of the world onto the West Coast of the South Island. Being viewed worldwide by tens of thousands of people, and receiving a large number of video entries. the Spanish womans rugby team has been announced as the winners.

Rugby fans around the world will be excited about the release of the Glacier Country Rugby Experience competition, which gives individuals and six of their mates the opportunity to win an all inclusive trip to the West Coast of New Zealand, worth over $50,000.

Police Commissioner Howard Broad said this afternoon’s news that a second explosion has ended all hope of finding the 29 Pike River miners alive is devastating for the miners’ families and the West Coast community.

Video Transcript of Prime Minister John Key’s Speech at Pike River Mine Tragedy Press Conference.

Specialist skills from throughout New Zealand and overseas are being used to help the rescue effort at the Peak River coal mine near Greymouth where 29 miners have been trapped since Friday night. Superintendent Gary Knowles, Tasman Police District Commander, said today that all avenues are being explored to get the men out.

Photographs of the miners trapped underground at the Pike River coal mine will be made available by families who choose to do so for police to publicly release. This may not happen until later today.

Telecom has offered any help and resources it can provide to assist the Pike River Mine explosion rescue effort.

The Government stands ready to offer whatever assistance it can as events unfold at Pike River mine on the West Coast, says the Minister of Energy and Resources, Gerry Brownlee.

Westland National Park’s 50th anniversary celebrations were kicked off in Franz Josef with the official opening of the newly sealed glacier roads.