Blogs from Hokitika, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

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Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika November 26th 2009

Today we did the knife-making workshop in Barrytown, which was a lot of fun. It was an all day activity, but I think we both really enjoyed it. It is held with about 8 people in a couple's yard/house. We got to do a lot of hands-on stuff, but the harder stuff was done for us or we got a lot of assistance. We started by getting our steel to put in the fire and bang on anvils. The guy running the workshop, Steve, used mine as a sample, so I got a lot of help on it. But I did get to bang on it for a bit before he came and shaped the steel into the general shape of how I wanted the blade to be. He went around to everyone to shape theirs. ... read more
Axe Throwing
Axe Throwing
Giant Swing

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika April 27th 2009

Hokitika was the next town of any substance North of the glaciers and we stopped in to say hello, in the morning we went to a Jade factory for a free tour to see how they carved and shaped the Jade stone into Jewellery amongst other things, we didn't buy anything as it was all too expensive and Nibby had seen a flyer where you could carve you own Jade. We went to check it out and Nibby decided to make a Jade necklace, first off was the design... that took Nibby no time she already knew what she wanted, then came picking the stone again that took only minutes (I wish it was like this when we went shopping). Then it was into the carving. I made myself busy elsewhere while she got on and ... read more
Hokitika
Hokitika
Hokitika

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika April 7th 2009

Hokitika 2nd - 4th April 2009 We had planned to just overnight at Hokitika, but luckily decided to do a little exploring as we had heard there was a beautiful gorge there. The weather was still lovely so we drove to the gorge. It really was incredible - the blue of the water had to be seen to be believed. I was tempted to go for a swim, but when I dangled my fingers in the water they were almost instantly numbed with the cold. There was no way I was going in! On the way back from the gorge we stopped at a memorial for seven policemen who were shot by a farmer in the 1940's when he went crazy. The story of what happened was written next to the memorial. It was very moving. ... read more
Rob at Hokitika Gorge
Hokitika Gorge
Hokitika Gorge

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika March 12th 2009

Hello folks! Sorry about the delay, but I haven't been able to get online. I've been to Castle Basin and West Point in the last week. Castle Basin was in the middle of nowhere. West Point was too far from town, in the middle of the suburbs. No pictures just yet. At Castle Basin, we made topographical maps and walked for an hour through this narrow limestone cave that had a river running through it. The water went up to my chest. Really cool in that it wasn't commercially run. Just a stop off the road. In West Point, we went to the most run down museum of ever been to called Coaltown. Ghetto. On a higher note, we went to this gigantic glowworm cave. Very very awesome. I'm currently travelling to Harihari where we'll be ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika March 7th 2009

Day 40 Hokitika Today we tried to go white water rafting down the Buller River, but unfortunately there were not enough people to join us which was a real shame as it is famous for its grade of river and is in flood at the moment. We travelled further south to Charleston to try to go and see the glow worms cave while riding on water in inflatable tubes, unfortunately this was full as well so it we were destined not to get wet or have any adventure trips today. Quite disappointed we continue south along the coast and stop at Pancake Rocks which are interesting rock formations that look like layers of pancakes! We called at the beach at Greymouth to have some lunch before heading to Hokitika. This small coast town was dead despite ... read more
West coast
IMGP2887
Pancake Rocks

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika March 3rd 2009

3/3/09 = Day 2: The Hilly road from Hokitika to Hari Hari! Woke up earlier than needed to today, at 7am - v.annoying. Tried snoozing, but didn’t work out, so got up, made porridge and ate it whilst watching kids cartoons...ahhh...the good old days. Got changed then and ready for biking day to Hari Hari. Padded pants on and good to go. Didn’t make it far before realised that brakes were sticking and so were permanently braking. Had to stop and take front wheels off to adjust; think had put them on too tight. Seemed to do the trick anyway and off we went, heading south over bridge towards Hari Hari. No signs to see if we were going right way, only a hope that this was only bridge out, because only directions we had were ... read more
Stream and mountains
A stop by the stream
Bikes and mountains

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika March 3rd 2009

2nd March 2009 - Quiet day and Evening Sunset!! We arrived in Hokitika at around lunchtime. It seemed like a very quiet town. Bigger than Arthurs but as the sun was shining we wanted something more to do than sit inside and read....Hokitika didn’t offer it!! The biggest attraction was a clock and it wasn’t anything like Big Ben! Our hostel was weird too. It was above a Jade shop (town famous for Jade) and there were only 5 other people staying there with all the rest of the rooms empty. It had a very empty feel and was not at all welcoming! Still it was clean and we were only staying there for 1 night! Sure we could cope! Our 1st stop after dumping our stuff was the information centre. They helped us book our ... read more
Us and the Sunset!!
Down Down Deeper and Down.....I do believe those are song lyrics!!
Fudge Making!!

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika March 2nd 2009

2/3/09 = A quiet day in Hokitika Woke up early today even though didn’t need to = v.annoying. Built log fire (love fires) then chilled out next to creation. V.nice. Made tasty porridge, ate next to lovely fire, showered, then packed up and off for 9:30 bus. Got wheels off in preparation this time…or at least tried to. Got Debs’ off o.k., but mine was totally stuck, bus driver had put it on really tight. Atomic bus came and man wasn’t at all happy that I couldn’t get wheel off…he just kind of stormed off while I was mid-sentence…really not nice these bus drivers! Had no other option then but to try and crane it off. Deb got out the good old multi-tool knife and we wrenched up the handle, leaving a nice big dent in ... read more
Good old fish 'n' chips
Me in sticks
Me and Me

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika February 20th 2009

Hey everyone, We took a couple of days to chill after our mammoth mountain climb, we both had huge blisters and were slightly sunburnt. It was amazing though as you can see from the pictures and it was totally worth it. Jezza and I have discovered we are both excellent at 3 things, 1) losing things, 2) missing our road exits and 3) arriving an hour early for our day trips and still managing to miss the bus!! This is what happened the morning off the crossing but we still managed to get there, dont ask us how it was 5am in the morning!! We went south from Taupo to Palmaston North which was made famous because John Cleese said, "if you're thinking about killing yourself then go to Palmaston North and that will tip you ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Hokitika February 8th 2009

We used the annual Waitangi Day public holiday as an excuse to head out on the open road for three days (as if we need an excuse!). We left work as early as we could get away on Thursday night, left the big smoke and drove north up to Hanmer Springs, where we stayed the night in a backpackers. The idea was to get an early start on friday morning, crossing the Southern Alps via the Lewis Pass. We arrived at our destination Hokitika on the west coast on friday, having had a stunning drive punctuated by a few stops to feed the sandflies and a quick lunch stop in Greymouth. Leaving Greymouth we enjoyed crossing two combined road-rail bridges - where the railway tracks run right down the middle of the long single-lane bridges - ... read more
Hokitika Ladybug
Hokitika beach
Hokitika Gorge




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