Our main destination on this trip was the Hokitika Wild Foods Festival - a 2 day party featuring a huge feast of weird food and drink. This small town nearly triples in population with this event. Concerts, beach bonfires and drunk kiwis made for the craziest weekend we've had yet. The stuff we tried - hou hou grubs, worms, kangaroo, ostrich, venison, chamois, paua, mountain oysters (sheep balls!!!), kava drink, and moonshine. Lots of beer and wine made this all possible. We apologize for not getting any shots of the colorful housebuses or the 60 odd bonfires lighting up a kilometer stretch of beach. Drinking and digital cameras in the sand don't mix well.
The next stop was farther south at glacier central, featuring Franz Josef and Fox, two of the most accessible and dynamic glaciers in the world. The two small towns at the base of each glacier compete for tourist dollars with hikes, flights, and other activities. We didn't walk on the glacier this time, but instead took a tough hike that brought us to a great view overlooking Franz Josef. We spent a fun night eating dinner at the Blue Ice cafe in town. The woodfired pizza was a nice change from cooking on the campstove.
The glaciers were the furthest south we traveled. We had to backtrack north a bit to drive through Arthur's Pass National Park and over to the East Coast. This park is more rocky and barren than the west and features huge mountains, deep valleys, and of course, great tramping. |
