Untamed West Coast

The holiday season is not over yet. Leave the grind behind and enjoy autumn on the West Coast. Follow the trails or take to the road for your  choice of adventure. Whether you’re soaring over icescapes, zipping through treetops, finding arty treasures, exploring on two wheels or two  legs, or simply luxuriating in a natural retreat – it’ll probably just be you, and world-renowned wilderness.

Discover Jade Country and the cool little town of Hokitika

Hokitika’s cool, quirky vibe is fueled by a large artisan community, a vibrant hospitality scene, and lashings of inspiring West Coast landscapes. Feet in the sand of a driftwood-laden beach, sitting proudly beside its historically infamous namesake river, under the snow- capped gaze of the Southern Alps, Hokitika charms from all sides offering up a fascinating past and a full range of activities to keep modern  explorers happy.

Hokitika claims more galleries and studios per capita than anywhere in New Zealand. Wander around town and watch artists at work, talk to  pounamu and bone carvers, photographers, painters, glass blowers, sculptors, wood turners, potters, jewellers, metal, stone and textile  artists.

Rest a while on the Take-a-Seat art installations around town. Hokitika’s extra wide town streets were never quite paved with gold but they  were built on the back of the 19th century gold rush that brought thousands of hopeful fortune seekers from around the world — and helped  set the town off with style.

Long before gold was the object of desire, Māori traders from all over Aotearoa New Zealand came seeking pounamu — the treasured greenstone / NZ jade used for adornment and weapons and found only on the West Coast.

Just north of town lies the Arahura River, considered the birthplace of pounamu, and there’s nowhere better than Hokitika to learn about the stone and watch it being carved and polished into fabulous jewellery and pieces of art.