Hokitika Gorge, New Zealand
Ever since I started planning New Zealand, I knew I wanted to see Hokitika. The western part of the South Island is blessed with tall, icy mountain ranges and vast glaciers, giving rise to glacial melt that drips down into the rivers, lakes, and gorges nearby to create stunning blues you only see in edited photos. Hokitika is one of the most famous examples those milky, turquoise blues of glacial runoff. The following photos are, happily, unedited.
Hokitika Gorge was about an hour’s drive southwest from Greymouth, and a 15-minute hike to the famous swingbridge hanging over the gorge. The bridge can only hold 6 people at a time, so Matt and I waited patiently for our turn before heading out over those blue, blue waters. The view from the bridge was unreal.
The water truly was this gorgeous stunning color, made milky by a combination of glacial runoff and the sediment of the rocks and stones found in the gorge. It was a mesmerizing pool of beauty. After playing on the bridge for a while, we gave others their turn and hiked down to the water’s edge, where we climbed on boulders to get even better views of those waters.
The only thing that deterred us from staying longer than we did were mosquitoes. The entire time we’d been in New Zealand, I had not seen ONE.SINGLE.BUG (this place is truly magic). Apparently, they all live at Hokitika Gorge, and I, writing on January 2nd, still have a thousand bug bites from that day.
We could have stayed forever, staring at the pool of water beneath us, but the mosquitoes and rumbling stomachs nipped us onwards back to Greymouth.
One thing about New Zealand: places close DOWN after about 7pm, and it is nigh impossible to find a place to eat after that time of day. Since it was almost 9pm at this point, we knew we’d probably have to grab fast food from the only place in town still open—KFC, which I dreaded. As we drove to dinner, we had a bit of good luck—one restaurant was still open, and it looked really nice! The restaurant was called Speight’s. Speight’s is a famous brewery in NZ, although we entered the beautiful, historic brick building thinking nothing more than: we’re starving. The waitress politely informed us that we were too late for dinner, and turned us away, but not before literally calling another restaurant in town and making reservations there for us because it was so late. We were so taken by her kindness that we thanked her over and over again and started to make our way out to the next restaurant. About the same time, a large family of 6 piled into the restaurant demanding dinner. They wouldn’t have it that the restaurant was closing for the night, and that dinner had ended at 8. In raised voices, they complained that they’d driven over two hours to eat here, and they planned on doing it. Matt and I couldn’t help but watch the drama unfold, because we’re awful. Exasperated, the waitress finally agreed to seat them, and very kindly offered to seat us as well. We were so embarrassed that we told her “no, no, we can’t!” and thanked her again, but she just shrugged and said, “the kitchen is going to be open for those guys, so you might as well stay.”
We had a fantastic dinner at Speight’s and we’ll always remember their hospitality! After enjoying our meal in the historic brewery, we headed back to our hostel, where we set our alarms for super early and then passed out from exhaustion.
