The Forks, West Coast Map

About The Forks, West Coast

The Forks is a locality in the West Coast Region of New Zealand. It sits at an elevation of around 40 m above sea level. It lies approximately 118 km south-west of Greymouth, the regional capital. The Forks is located at 43.2500°S, 170.2333°E. It observes New Zealand Time (NZST/NZDT).

The Forks lies where the land exhales a breath of damp earth and the distant murmur of the sea, though the ocean itself is some ten kilometres away. It lies 140.5 km west-north-west of Ashburton (from Ashburton: bearing 300°T), and is situated 36.0 km north-east of Waikowhai. Here, the land rolls with a gentle, verdant swell, a mosaic of rich, dark soil and the deeper green of native bush that crowds the slopes. The air itself carries a certain weight, cool and carrying the scent of rain-soaked ferns and the faintest hint of salt from the vast, unseen expanse of Shag Bay, eighteen kilometres to the north-east. To the west, the land ascends into the Price Range, a rugged spine that catches the afternoon sun, casting long shadows over the valleys. The Okarito River, a ribbon of silver, threads its way through the landscape a mere three kilometres distant, its waters reflecting the ever-changing West Coast sky, while Lake Wahapo, a tranquil jewel, lies a similar distance to the south, its surface often ruffled by the prevailing winds.

Historically, The Forks has been a place of quiet resilience, its economy deeply entwined with the gifts of the land and the sea. Early settlers, drawn by the promise of fertile soil, established dairy farms that still form the backbone of the local agricultural scene, their pastures a vibrant contrast to the wilder, untamed bush. The timber industry, though now diminished, once echoed through these valleys, the scent of freshly cut beech mingling with the damp air. Today, tourism offers a gentler, more sustainable livelihood, drawing travellers who seek the raw beauty of the West Coast, the proximity to the Middleton Snowfield, a majestic expanse of ice thirteen kilometres to the north-west, a powerful draw for those who appreciate the grandeur of nature. The rhythm of life in The Forks is unhurried, dictated by the changing seasons and the steady pulse of its working farms, a place where the echoes of its past are woven into the fabric of its present.

About This The Forks Map Page

This page provides an embedded street and satellite map of The Forks, West Coast, New Zealand at coordinates -43.25, 170.23333. Use the Map and Satellite buttons to switch views, the plus and minus buttons to zoom, and Fullscreen to fill the screen.

Search Maps opens a second, independent map with four things the embedded map cannot do. It searches OpenStreetMap for any New Zealand town, suburb or landmark by name. It offers LINZ topographic maps as a base layer — the official Topo250 and Topo50 sheets, switching scale automatically as you zoom, and the standard reference for tramping, hunting and back-country travel. It offers LINZ aerial imagery down to 5cm resolution in urban areas. And it can take a single GPS fix from your device and report your position as both an NZTM2000 grid reference and plain latitude and longitude — the grid reference being what New Zealand search and rescue services work from. Map tiles require mobile coverage, but a GPS position does not, so the coordinates remain correct even where the map itself cannot load.

My Location & Navigate starts the vector-tile navigator: live turn-by-turn driving directions from your current position to any destination, with spoken guidance, lane hints and automatic re-routing.

Live weather conditions with current observations and a 7-day forecast are powered by Open-Meteo. Real-time New Zealand and world news feeds keep the page current, while an editorial description provides background on The Forks.

The Forks sits within the West Coast Region. Location data is drawn from the GeoNames geographical database and verified by coordinates, ensuring the correct The Forks is identified even where the name is shared across multiple New Zealand localities.