Blogs from Hokitika, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

This was a very worthwhile detour off the main road from Greymouth (Blog: ) to Franz Josef (SH6), but probably only if you haven't already seen the incredibly blue waters of lakes Pukaki or Tekapo (we hadn't yet). A detour it is however, about 30 minutes each way. After being wowed by the Blue Lake of Mt. Gambier in Australia (Blog: ), I didn't expect to be as amazed by incredible blue waters again. This was equally amazing. The milky blue colour of the river flowing down this gorge is incredible. The first sign of what was to come was teasing glimpses through the trees of this unworldy water, until you arrive at the swingbridge which crosses the gorge, giving you closer access to the waters. The colour comes from glacial ice water melt mixed with ... read more

Well the Wildfoods Festival lived up to its name in many different ways. I don’t think we really knew what we were getting ourselves into by signing up for the bus trip there, but I can definitely say that over the past 48 I have had one of the weirdest, but most wonderful weekends ever. I’ll start from the beginning… The bus was supposed to be leaving at 7am “sharp” so we were told to arrive at 6:45. We walked over to the car park on time and were greeted by a large crowd of cowboys and Indians (that was the mandatory bus theme). There was also a tower of 12 packs and boxed wine that was being passed out. By 7am there were several people drinking pretty heavily, especially considering it was 7am. The busses ... read more

This weekend we decided to take Lola for her maiden voyage on a road trip to the west coast to Hokitika for the WildFoods Festival. Supposedly it is one of the top 100's New Zealand must do's. The night before we had our first weekly gormet dinner and Sandra and I made enchiladas and we had coronas and christened our new Corona before the big trip. We left on Thursday afternoon after stopping by a BBQ at the flat next door, and we drove up to Christchurch where we spent the night with one of Sara's friends from Colgate who is studying at Canterburry. Her flat was so nice, appartment style and it put the places here to shame but the university is outside the center of the city and although we didn't get to see ... read more

hello everyone So, i figured that i've not done a blog in a long time so, i ought to do one now so you guys have a clue where i am. So, i'm in hokitika which is a small town which doesn't have much going for it apart from Jade... and to be honest i'm not sure thats a good thing.... its Green, who wants to wear green round their neck? well the answer is a whole heap of people obviously cos there are heaps of shops here. I guess it'd be a good place to come to buy people green for christmas. They first found jade when looking for gold which reminds me of Blackadder when percy tries out alchemy and creates "a nugget of purest green" but whatever if you like jade then this ... read more

Work has been keeping me very busy so I’ll keep this pretty simple. We did lots of driving and the stomach flu that a couple of us picked up from the Chinese restaurant (remember the woman dressed in the Pokemon shirt and was sneezing in the kitchen) set in. Some of us toured a brewery in Greymouth while the others explored the biggest city on the west coast (but it can’t be any bigger than Astoria, OR a town it shares many similarities with). We just had to stop at The Warehouse (Wal-Mart equivalent) to satisfy a shopping urge (the car continues to fill up with purchases). We left around noon or 12:30 heading south towards Fox Glacier. We stopped briefly in Hokitika the jade (greenstone) capital of New Zealand. Made a stomach flu stop in ... read more