Hokitika

This is a very cool place to visit and we wish we had had more time to explore. Hokitika is the gateway to the South Westland World Heritage National Park and the Arahura River empties out into the sea about 5 miles north of Hokitika. It is here that the traditional source of Pounamu (greenstone, which is a type of jade) is available in large quantities to the Maori people.

A nice, quiet town with some interesting galleries, expecially one's who specialize in greenstone carvings. There was a co-op gallery that had a vast array of local items and almost everything was high quality. There is also one greenstone gallery that had the largest selection of items we saw anywhere in New Zealand. You were allowed to watch artist creating the jeweler which was fun to see. We visited one very unique gallery where an artist collects river rocks and paints them with stylized Kiwi's (see photo) as well as a number of other motifs. We enjoyed talking with him and also got a chance to pet his dog, which took the edge off of us missing Niki.

Last but not least, was the baker just around the corner from our hotel entrance. Between the bakery goods and the meat pies, we could get really fat if we lived here. The beaches here are also very nice with a beautiful, white sand.