About 30 km from the main road, the Hokitika Gorge is a dramatic scenic spot, a favourite for photographers and kayakers. The glacier-fed river is a wonderful colour:
The guidebook says one should be sure to take insect repellent as the sandflies really love tourists. I met an Australian visitor who obviously hadn’t read that advice. He was a great asset as the swarms of sandflies around him attracted fantails. You need good light to get sharp photographs of those birds, they are so quick. Just a dozen or so blurred images, no keepers.
Hokitika has a long history and some nicely preserved buildings. The former courthouse, known locally as Seddon House, was built in 1908.
There’s a fine statue in front of famous West Coaster Richard John Seddon, New Zealand’s Premier from 1893 to 1906.
Let’s hope they can find a tenant or buyer for the building.
Nearby there was a shop available for lease, not quite so showy:
Kowhitirangi Incident: this memorial, around 20 km from Hokitika, commemorates a confrontation in 1941 which resulted in the deaths of seven people. You can read more about it in Wikipedia here.
The combined road-rail bridge over the Taramakau River north of Hokitika can be a scary experience for tourists. Yes. this is the main highway!
There is not a lot of room! I wonder what it feels like crossing on a bicycle?
What is the best time of year to visit New Zealand? We would like to avoid high heat and bugs. We are in our seventies.
When does New Zealand offer its most agreeable weather for new visiting tourists? We are in our seventies.
That’s a tough question. NZ has an island climate, extremely variable and quite unpredictable. You will see from recent posts that the weather mid-winter can be stunning, even if a little cool. February – April can be a time with more settled weather, December seems to often turn on bad weather. But that can come at any time really. When we lived in the North Island, I recall that one year at Tauranga we had 21 C on mid-winter’s day, then snow on our boats as we came home from the Boxing Day yachting regatta on 26 Dec! Email me if you would like a better answer, I’d be pleased to help.
Wonderfuuul!!! I’ve been to New Zealand for several times but I always didn’t have time to visit this place. However, through your pictures in this blog, i do realize that this is really a wonderful place to visit.
Next time i would never miss this place.
thanks to you for bringing such wonderful pictures to live!
The photos are wonderful, cheers.
http://hg-rider.blogspot.com
Hi everybody,
great pictures!! please help us make our dream of new zealand come true as well and vote for us under
http://www.14fuerneuseeland.de/EugenundJulia !!
Thanks to everybody who votes, every vote counts!
Julia
“Hi
We are a young couple and would like to visit new zealand and explore the conties rich boidiversity with rivers, mountains, and sea beaches and sports. We are planning for a drive in tour for 10 days. We need to know which cities and places in new zealand would be worth visiting. We have a slight idea bout the distinctions of the north and the south islands. Hence we look forward to your advice for the places to visit. Also it would be great if we could travel where the whether is some where between 21 to 27 C .
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WOW! Absolutely gorgeous!
The glacial water looks divine! Great photos and interesting read.
Added to our To Do list. Thanks for the photos and valued link to Hikitika website. Beautiful! Can’t wait to take my daughter there. I am making up our itinerary now complete with a map on our blog. It is great finding these gems to work into our itinerary! Cheers
Have visited Hokitika a couple of times , if you do get chance to visit this wonderful place give yourself some time to see the beach it is a stunning and wild place .We love it ,the tasman sea is a truly untamed force of nature . for the more advenurous there is a chance to white water raft down through the gorge and this is awesome . Have a great trip wherever you visit in Nz it is a great place .
New Zealand is lovely. I would like to know more about kayaking in Hokitika. Me and my husband love adventure and I think NZ is definitely one of the most thrilling places on earth.
There is great beauty in New Zealand and I am sure that the only thing that can compare is the beauty of its people! See you all in NZ and best regards to everyone!
good pictures! You know the beach Sirituba, is in the Amazon, Brazil. http://luciebruno.blogspot.com/2011/02/passeio-praia-de-sirituba.html
Congratulations on your blog!
The Hokitika Gorge seems specially very exciting ! It reminds me the Gorges du Verdon, a canyon in the south of France, one of most famous canyon in Europe. “Verdon” name comes from “vert” which meens “green” in french, because the water is blue-green. There are also many spots for kayakers, climbing…