Ever since my passing through Hokitika on my South Island adventure tour last December, I've been looking forward to heading back there for their annual "Wild Foods Festival". It was last weekend, and even though I couldn't round up any friends to join me, I went regardless!
The drive from Blenheim is about 4.5 hrs. I wasn't even 30 minutes into my trip when I got stuck in this traffic jam!
The drive passes through some gorgeous mountain ranges and Nelson Lakes National Park.
Steve told me that on a nice day, Lake Rotoiti is a great place to stop. He was right!
This year's theme of the fest was "Where the Wild Foods Are".
The town of Hokitika has a population of just over 3000, but the festival sells 15,000 tickets! Therefore finding accomodation isn't so easy. The NZ Fire Brigade set up a campground for festival goers on this beach, which is where I stayed. A little scary as this was the night of the Japan earthquake and they had issued some tsunami warnings for the NZ coast. We got a bit of drizzle but that was it, thank goodness.
Tent city!
I borrowed a tent from a coworker. My friendly campsite neighbor politely informed me that based on my poor pitching techniques, I was about to get soaked. He helped me fix it. Thanks, Kent!
After an okay (and nice and dry!) night in my tent, it was off to the festival! Some people went costumed, but it wasn't the majority like at the Sevens. I did appreciate the creativity of this homemade Lego Man costume!!
And then it was time to eat some WILD FOODS! First stop was the classic huhu grub, a staple of the festival.
Huhu grubs are the larvae stage of the flying huhu beetle. They hatch from eggs which are deposited in rotten wood. Here these guys were splitting wood and pulling the grubs out fresh! They were priced based on size.
Here's my freshly found $3 grub, still squirming!
Down the hatch! Tasted like almonds.
Next up was kangaroo meat. Quite tasty and lean. I highly recommend you try it sometime!
Also quite delicious was sea cucumber.
And then an ostrich pie. Savory. With plum jam on top. Delicious!
The new addition to this year's festival was the Stallion Semen Shot. Yes, there is horse semen in those vials! You could have a flavor, but I chose natural. :)
The microscope was hooked up to a TV screen so you could see all the horse sperm swimming :)
My lovely campsite neighbors let me tag along with them at the Festival. Here we are doing the Stallion Shot together. Cheers!
It didn't taste bad at all, actually. Next up was a shot of cow colostrum!!
Next up was the insect tent.
Including Worms on Toast....
Raw scoprion!
(they advised you to not eat the stinger as it's "hard to digest". Haha!)
And then I ate a LIVE grasshopper! Crunchy!
Most foods were decent. Some foods I tried were just disgusting.
Such as a hard-boiled seagull egg...
Goat milk ice cream was a big disappointment. Super rich but kind of sour. Blech.
The ultimate in grossness though were "Mountain Oysters", aka sheep testicles. Here they are raw.
We tried them boiled. Gross. Note my face of dislke.
Probably the most entertaining (albeit simple) thing we ate all day were chocolate dipped chili peppers! Kiwis aren't known for enjoying spicy foods, so I thought it'd be a hoot if we all tried them. Even this Arizona gal shed some tears eating one! Goes down well at first, but once the chocolate dissolves, it's all heat!!
Later that evening, everyone headed to the beach for some bonfires and relaxing. Looking down the coast there were at least a dozen bonfires! How Kiwi :)
As if our bellies weren't full enough already, we picked up some bakery pizza. MMMM.
One of them was whitebait pizza! Very tasty, heaps better than anchovies!
The next day I decided to take the "Scenic Route" home along the West Coast. The Lonely Planet travel guide ranked one of the Top Ten Scenic Drives in the WORLD! The weather was stunning, which made the drive even better.
Along the coast is Paparoa National Park, home of the Punakiki Pancake Rocks. What are Pancake Rocks, you ask? They are limestone formations that began 30 million years ago as lime-rich frgaments of dead marine creatures overlayed weaker layers of soft mud and clay.
Stacked like pancakes!
Punakiki also has some deep crevasses that, at high tide, water rushes in and pouffs up like a blowhole! Unfortunately, my timing was off and wasn't around at the right time to see this.
But I did get to see some birds sunning on the rocks...
And even spotted a few dolphins swimming in the sea!
From grubs to grasshoppers to pancake rocks... it was a fantastic weekend on the Wild West Coast.
Wow! You are very daring. I do not think I could have eaten 1/2 those foods! You're like Andrew Zimmern on Bizarre Foods! Well done!
ReplyDeletedude. that's gross. but still really cool. :) I don't know how many times I can say this- i really wish i was as cool as you.
ReplyDeleteMiss you lady
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For many people, foreign travel can be transformational, changing how we think of our lives and our world. When we spend time in different cultures, everything is new and fascinating. We start living in the present, because the present is so intriguing. We feel revitalized. Because you let go of what is familiar and routine for you, your inner mind is inclined to take a fresh look at your life--how you feel about what's going on and what direction you want to go next.
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