Wednesday 19th April
Last nights accommodation was lovely. It was a little studio cottage on a farm just south of Hokitika (Hoe-ki-ti-ka). They also provided a lovely breakfast basket. Eggs, bread, pastrami, cheese, muesli, cereal, yoghurt, milk and fruit juice. Just what I needed after my run this morning. It was a lovely run through the farm and then down the highway.

We headed into Hokitika town and had a browse through the shops, jade factory/shop and the Town library which had some of the town history displayed. We were treated to a town history blurb from the curator. He said that they experience an earthquake once every two hours somewhere in New Zealand. In gold rush days the people arrived by the 1000’s and there are still their descendants living there (Germans, English, Scottish and Chinese to name a few. Carnegie organised the building of the library and then set up reading rooms and trust to ensure people knew how to read. The author Eleanor Catton researched Hokitika and this is the basis of her novel The Luminaries.

We had a look at the making of Pounamu jewellery, clubs, etc. It takes 4 to 5 hours to make a pendant about 4cm in size. They use diamond drills to shape the pendant and then a sandstone to file it smooth. They range in price from $65 for a pair of earrings to $3200 for something midsize. A 10cm kiwi cost $675. It is very expensive but that is because they are all made by hand.

We then headed to Franz Josef to have a look at the glacier. The track we used last time we were there has been closed as they have put in a new one that takes you a lot further along as the track has receded a very long way. As far as we could tell they no longer hike from the foot of the glacier. You can still do a heli-hike.

Our next stop was Lake Mathieson where we went on a 45minute walk through the rainforest to the lake. It is know for the reflections of Mt Cook but unfortunately it was too windy and not smooth enough to see.

We then had a 3 hour drive to our next bed at Lake Hawea (How-wee-a). Unfortunately it was dark and we missed the views as we  drove through the gorge. Although we did see many, many dead possums along the way. We luckily arrived at our new home 10 minutes before the office closed at 8pm. We are slipping into old habits of trying to fit too much into each day. We will try to go back to slowing down a little.