Position 42 42.802S 170 58.015E

Paul let me drive to Hokitika – the greenstone (Jade) capital of NZ.  Maoris used to come to this part of the coast to collect jade and work it into tools, jewellery, canoe figure heads etc.  Very hard.  A lot of jade is imported from British Columbia so you have to try and find authentic stuff.  Apparently. Maori have put a ban on collection of local jade – big outcrops around here (and you can pick up pebbles / boulders of the stuff from the rivers) – presumably so you have to buy from a Maori?

Ships used to navigate the Hokitika rover, not sure what for, but, like a lot of NZ rivers a bar at the entrance.  This signal station was built at the entrance to the Hokitika river in 1865, and used a combination of coloured flags, balls and arms to let the waiting ships know what conditions were like over the bar and when OK to enter.  There continued to be a signalman here until 1952 when traffic declined and so no more ships.

These guys are fishing for whitebait – not the same species of fish we eat.  There are strict rules and regulations and the season lasts for 2.5 months.  They eat them, from what we can gather, mixed with a bit of egg and fried – whitebait patties.  They have little taste, apparently, and half the population can’t seem to find the interest and the other half are obsessed with it.  Anyway they either have big nets on these long poles or fix nets into the river. They catch them as the tide comes in. 

There was a distinct hierarchy here, kids up the river, adults further down.  These mad blokes were wading in the surf at the river entrance.  Where these guys are fishing used to be a series of breakwaters, that extended into the sea, to fix and deepen the river entrance.  All gone now.

The whitebait, lot of effort for not a lot.

More wood and a bloke of his quad bike collecting fuel (assume).

And onward to Punakaiki – pretty boring coastline.