February 28

We’re ending the month in the small town of Hokitika on the West Coast. Our beachside apartment is just a few steps to the Tasman Sea and a stretch of wild, rocky beach. Yesterday’s early spell of heavy rain and high winds has lead to bright sunshine, warming temperatures and stunning views of the Southern Alps and Mounts Cook and Tasman to the southeast.

We enjoyed a walking tour of Hokitika with Ann this morning and learned of the gold rush of the 1860s and the Wild West attitude. At the time, Hokitika was one of the larger towns of NZ with a population of 45,000. Eleanor Catton’s Booker Prize winning novel, The Luminaries, is set in Hokitika in 1866. Today the population is about 4,000; tourism and the dairy (skim milk powder) provide employment.

A sculptor / metalworker has restored this building from 1905 and established his workshop and display gallery on the premises.

American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie left his mark on the town by funding the public library. Many buildings in the area have been declared unsuitable and abandoned because they would be unsafe in an earthquake, but the library has been reopened and restored to its original exterior with the incorporation of polystyrene for some of the architectural details. From street level, these features look like the real thing. This photo is from the NZ Tourism site and shows the roof details that have been replaced.

West Coast Treetop Walk is a 20-metre high structure with half a kilometre of walkways and towers through a rainforest of rimu and tree ferns.

Through the trees, a view of Lake Mahinapua, a shallow lake that was originally a coastal lagoon. The expansion of coastal dunes cut it off from the Tasman Sea and made it an inland lake, about 0.5 km from the sea. Vintage photos show people enjoying outings in small boats and lakeside picnics dressed in their Victorian finery.

A look down on the tree ferns to appreciate their shape and symmetry.

A beautiful specimen to close this post