Hokitika & Arthur’s Pass

Hokitika is a cool little town on the west coast of New Zealand. It has a really laid back vibe to it and boasts a very impressive beach sign made out of Driftwood! It was apparently the result of competitive sculpturing, and you can see a number of other arty pieces dotted about town which add to the cool vibe.

It is the best place to get jade from and our host was even a jade carver. They also have whitebait season every year when the fish break away from the ocean and come back into the river. We tried a whitebait fritter sandwich which was whitebait, egg and a bit of flour to hold it together and it was delicious. The whitebait is totally different than the stuff we have at home though – a west coast delicacy.

In the evening, despite the rain, we took our host’s recommendation and went to the glow worm dell. It’s exactly what it says on the tin and is a little dell filled with glow worms. It was stunning to be inside a dark forest area with just loads of speckles of light everywhere! It also reminded me of one of my favourite videos when I was a child called The Glo Friends Save Christmas. It’s on YouTube if you want to watch it ?

After a quick overnight stop in Hokitika, we set off for Christchurch. We were excited about this drive as we’d heard a lot of things about Arthur’s Pass and were ready to cross back over to the east of New Zealand. The beginning of the drive through Arthur’s Pass was not for the faint hearted as we crawled upwards through mist, turning sharp corners as slowly as possible without fear of rolling back down. You can relax though, once we passed through the Arthur’s Pass township, we were greeted with clear skies and no mist so we could actually see where we we driving. Bonus!!!

This drive ended up being our favourite in New Zealand as it is the highest path over the Southern Alps and the views are second to none. We explored and had a decent walk to a cave but didn’t go in because the water was up to waist height! We also walked up to Castle Hill where we were surrounded by limestone boulders and felt very much like we were in Middle Earth.