This past weekend was an interesting one. I decided to cram into one car with 4 others to head to the upper West Coast of the South Island. Our destination was Hokitika, a small town well known for it's greenstone, but more importantly for its annual Wild Food Festival. This festival draws approximately 20,000 people every year to try some of the most bizarre and unpleasant foods that exist (and that you didn't even know existed). If you take the scenic route, Hokitika is 13 hours from Dunedin. If you take the straightforward route (which is what we did on the way back), it's about 9 hours.
The weekend started with me waking up at 4:30am on Friday morning to make sure we could be on the road by 6am. When I awoke, I took the liberty of calling Chris since it was 10:30am in London. After packing my toothbrush, sleeping bag and appetite, we were on the pitch dark road by 6am. My travelling companions included Eulalia and Patricia (who I sat with in the back seat), Suleiman and driver Elliot. Initially, we drove for about 3 hours until we stopped in Wanaka for a washroom break. Afterwards, we made stops every time there was something worthwhile seeing (which was practically the entire way). Even in the pouring rain, the mountains and beaches were undeniably breathtaking. Once or twice, we stopped to allow a lost sheep cross the road or to make sure we didn't run over possums (which are a huge pest problem in NZ I might add). At one point, we stopped to look at a beautiful waterfall, which was even more alive with the rain. So, the rain was not necessarily a downer, however it did cause a minor detour in our trip. You will notice the picture of the back bumper of Elliot's vehicle. When we were about 5 hours away from Hokitika, we slid off the slippery road into a ditch. We were extremely lucky for 2 reasons: i) no one was hurt; ii) there was a ditch. For most of the drive up, we were on extremely elevated ground driving up mountains where there really was no support on the sides of the road to keep you from falling off. Well, anyways, I won't get into any more details, however I only mention this story because of how grateful I am for our safety. I have a return ticket back to Canada in June and I plan on making that trip. So, after we were towed to a mechanic in the town of Haast and given some string to hold up the back bumper, we were back on the road. This time, more careful and cautious. Elliot decided he would drive the entire way despite initially discussing that we would switch drivers. He was a champ because he drove starting from 6am to midnight which was when we arrived in Hokitika. Once we arrived, we looked for our campsite and managed to set up our tents in the dark. After having a celebratory drink for making it all the way to Hokitika, I decided it was time to crash, especially if we would be scavenging the food festival the following day. I have never really slept in a tent before, so this was a real first for me. I slept with pjs, jeans, 5 different shirts, my jacket and a scarf wrapped around my head. Although the days were a nice 15-17 degrees, the nights were freezing. I learned my lesson for camping in the future: long johns and a touque are a MUST.
On Saturday, we headed to the festival around noon where exotic foods awaited us. Some of the more daring of the group headed straight to insects, while I stuck by the sushi booth. Some of the more disgusting foods available to us included: worms, cicadas, grubs, fish eyes, eel spine, frogs, duck tongue (nerves and all), and bull testicles. Some more exotic and odd foods included: horse meat, ostrich pies, crocodile, kangaroo, possum, emu kebabs and viagra slushies. Yes you heard me right on the last one. I don't know exactly how they make it, but it looks like a regular slushy. The most exotic thing I dared to try was crocodile and kangaroo which tasted rather bland and dry. I think this weekend was a turning point for me in my eating habits. While I will remain open to trying new things, I am going to stray away from meat as much as I can. There is a lot of great seafood here in New Zealand at decent prices as well. Although, I must admit that NZ's sushi is very disappointing. They consider chicken rolled into rice and seaweed a piece of sushi.
I do have more graphic pictures of the different foods I encountered, however they are not uploading at the moment so I will have to upload them later on in the week. After the foods festival, there was a reggae concert being held in the venue. This was a much better reggae concert experience than my first. The music was recognizable (Bob Marley) and it was music you could seriously dance too. The only 2 bars in Hokitika were in rather rough shape after the concert though. You were lucky if you could move in the bar. I soon left for another cold night's sleep in my tent. Luckily Patricia showed up shortly after so she could spread some body warmth.
The following morning I woke up early to explore the small town of Hokitika. Greenstone or New Zealand Jade is mainly found and manufactured in Hokitika. They are turned into figures, statues and more commonly, jewellery. I explored many of these greenstone shops to take a gander. It is quite expensive though. On average, a small necklace is about $70.00. I also discovered a small market in the back streets of Hokitika where they were selling everything from clothes to jewellery to massages to smoked meat. Very random.
By noon, we were back on the road back to Dunedin. We stopped in Christchurch to have lunch and pick up another passenger, Annie. She squeezed in with the three of us already crammed in the back and I had one of the most uncomfortable drives of my life. We arrived at midnight in one piece tired and exhausted, however completely full of food and stories. This weekend was a weekend I will always remember, however I don't plan on repeating it anytime soon.
