The possum pies are off the menu when we get to the Bushman’s Café , but their purveyor is around to explain why. We’re the day’s first customers when 'Possum Pete’ Salter and his wife Justine arrive, and I’m already resigned to the fact that I don’t meet the requirements for the job advertised on the café’s front door.

“Wanted: woman to cook and skin possums, set traps and make love. Must have good rifle, knife and spotlight. Please enclose picture of knife and rifle.”

Justine disappears into the kitchen, leaving Pete to entertain us. And while the menu looks interesting, there are a couple of reasons why we’ll go away hungry. First, we’ve failed to bring our own roadkill along (“you kill 'em, we grill 'em” says the menu).

Secondly, there are no possum pies because, quite simply, they haven’t got around to making any for a while.

The laconic Pete is a little world-weary about his local fame in culling the introduced pest that has ravaged New Zealand’s bushland. While the pie filling is not always roadkill – Pete goes out hunting the little vermin – they’re never sorry when it is.

There are about 70 million possums in New Zealand, eating through an estimated 21,000 tonnes of native bush each night, so it’s little wonder that Pete’s slogan says "Save a Tree, Eat a Possum".

Pete's also the owner of the Puke Pub, on the opposite side of the narrow highway halfway between Hokitika and Franz Josef Glacier, along the rugged West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

Puke (pronounced Pook-ee, not pew-k) is short for Pukekura – the West Coast’s smallest town. Pete and his wife Justine are the only residents, along with the giant model of a sandfly that Pete rolls out from the attic of his hut each morning for the tourists.

The Bushman’s Centre is crammed with feral and roadkill stuff, including skins and possum products and there’s a small museum out the back featuring live eels and (dead) possums, wild pig and displays on the region’s history and bushman’s culture.

Across the road at the pub there’s plenty to choose from on the menu apart from Road Kill of the Day. Other daily specials (“Guess that Mess”) also feature possum, with such names as Wheel Tread Possum, Headlight Delight, Joey Burgers or – if you’re in a hurry – Bag ‘n’ Gag (anything dead on bread).

The blackboard menu is a bit more upmarket, with venison sausages, roast wild pork, and wild hare in red wine and mushroom sauce.

So if you’re passing through Pukekura, stop in and have a look around. Pete’s just one of the eccentric characters you’re likely to meet on a drive along this stunning piece of coast.

The road hugs the coast for almost 450km between Westport to the north and Haast to the south, and the main attractions are those nature has provided.

About 12km from Westport is Cape Foulwind, home to New Zealand’s northern-most breeding colony of fur seals. A walkway runs along the headlands and there are platforms overlooking the seals basking and playing in the rock pools.

Heading south again, our next stop is the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, a formation of huge limestone stacks and blowholes. Walking tracks and viewing platforms allow close-up views of this natural wonder. Nikau palms tower overhead and fearless native weka birds pecks along the roadside.

From Hokitika, the road meanders south through breathtaking scenery, across one-lane bridges and through moody forests, the landscape and geology never failing to amaze. It rains often; this is the wettest part of New Zealand, with up to 5 metres recorded in some places each year. But the rain seems always to be followed by a burst of sunshine and a rainbow, and there are small waterfalls and dripping green ferns to admire along the way. The snow-capped mountains of the Southern Alps are never further than 30km from the Tasman Sea, the stand-outs being New Zealand’s highest peaks Aoraki (Mt Cook) and Mt Tasman.

Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, just 23km apart, are easily accessed and offer a range of activities including heli-hiking, guided glacier walks, ice-climbs and scenic helicopter flights. You can also see the glaciers just by walking to the nearby viewing points, for free.

At Haast, we enter Te Wahipounamu, the Southwest New Zealand World Heritage area. A good first stop is the Department of Conservation visitor centre where you can learn a lot about the geology and natural features of this area, including wetlands, beaches, dunes, lakes and rivers.

To see some of the remote parts of the region, we take half day trip with Waiatoto River Safaris. Our skilful driver Roger skims the jetboat over the water as we explore the length of the river, stopping here and there to explain the geology and history of this spectacular region, which is also home to the endangered Haast Brown Kiwi, New Zealand’s national symbol. At the head of the Waiatoto, we disembark for a walk in the rainforest. From there, it’s back down the river and out into the Tasman Sea...and always there’s a view of those spectacular mountains.

Wild and untamed, the West Coast is one of those places where after a while there are no superlatives left to describe it. You just have to see it for yourself.