WHERE I’D RATHER BE: HOKITIKA
If the past couple of weeks have taught us anything, it must be to seize the day. So with that in mind, and dependent on alert level rules of course, perhaps it’s time to finally tick Hokitika’s Wildfoods Festival off your list. This long-standing and renowned celebration of unusual food starts on March 13, so there’s still time to get a ticket and get to the lush West Coast.
The festival is best known for encouraging visitors to eat beyond their comfort zone, with regular offerings including horse semen, wasp larvae icecream, pig nipples and sheep-brain pate. But there’s much more going on than unusual food.
For entertainment this year, The Feelers, stellar* and Elemeno P will be taking audiences back to the heady days of the early 2000s. There’s also the wearable art competition, Feral Fashion, which involves contestants dressing themselves head-to-toe in foraged garments — think flower crowns, flax skirts, shell bras, and helmets with real antlers. wildfoods.co.nz
While you’re in the area, do not miss the West Coast Treetop Walk, a 15-minute drive from Hokitika. With steel boardwalks 20m high in the area, and a 47m-high lookout point (that’s as high as a 15-storey building), this 45-minute walk will give you gorgeous views across virgin forest, to the Southern Alps, Lake Mahinapua and the Tasman Sea. Then visit the stunning Hokitika Gorge — take the short walk from the carpark through the forest, and you’ll emerge at a viewing platform with views of the gorge. The glacial-fed waters are the most incredible pale milky blue, so stop and look before continuing along the path to the famous swing bridge across the Hokitika River. If you continue you’ll find boardwalks, waterfalls and even a little beach.
If you’re a crafty sort, at Bonz ‘n’ Stonz, visitors can design and carve their own pounamu. This area is known as "jade country" and is a hub for greenstone. If you don’t fancy trying your own hand at carving, visit the greenstone stores in town to watch master carvers at work.