Hokitika

Hokitika was a great little town on the coast. We found a delicious European style bread shop and where we had lunch. We walked around the town and stopped into a few cool artisan shops. One was owned by a Maori carver named Ben. He and Glenn talked for quite sometime about the different types of Maori instruments. Ben was very interested in making instruments and was just starting to explore a variety of native flutes. We then found out that there had been a drift wood sculpture contest on the beach a few days prior most of the sculptures were still up.



One of the kinetic drift wood sculptures.



Ack I am being swallowed by a giant drift wood fish skeleton....



After spending a few hours in Hokitika we made our way to Blackball (tehe). Blackball is known because it was the first place to have electricity in the South Island. There is also a famous motel known as, Formally The Blackball Hilton. Rumor has it that some big shot that worked for the Hilton asked them to change the name so they added--formally. That is where we stayed and wow what a place. Each of the rooms were painted a different color, we had the orange room of course:) And there was art and memorabilia all over the place. Below is a shot of Glenn playing at the bar/cafe. Blackball is also known for great sausages and salami, go figure. We of course had to get some and man I am now a blackball salami fan. We even stopped back through the next day to pick up more.