Things to do in Hokitika

Hokitika Gorge: how long the walk is and when the water is blue

Hokitika Gorge is the reason most people turn off the highway. The Hokitika River comes out of the mountains through a narrow granite gorge, and on a dry, sunny day the water is an opaque turquoise from the fine glacial silt suspended in it. After heavy rain it runs grey. The DOC track from the car park is short and easy: about 150 m to the first viewing platform, and about an hour for the full loop, which crosses a lower swing bridge and a 90 m suspension bridge high above the water with views up the valley to the Southern Alps.

The gorge is about 30 minutes' drive from town, on country roads signposted from State Highway 6 through Kokatahi and Kowhitirangi. The car park fills in summer, November to April, so go early or late in the day. Lake Kaniere, nearby, is worth combining with it: a big, clear lake in native forest with a short walk to Dorothy Falls beside the road. Check the DOC page for the gorge walk before you go, and look at the weather for the day before as well as the day itself.

Pounamu: why Hokitika is the greenstone town

Pounamu, New Zealand jade or greenstone, is found in a few West Coast rivers, above all the Arahura, just north of Hokitika. It was the most valuable material in the Māori world, used for tools, weapons and taonga, treasured heirlooms, and traded the length of the country. Under the Ngāi Tahu (Pounamu Vesting) Act 1997, all natural pounamu in the Ngāi Tahu area belongs to the iwi, and the local hapū, Ngāti Waewae and Ngāti Māhaki, are its guardians. Visitors may pick up loose stones by hand on some beaches, not in the rivers.

Hokitika has more carvers than anywhere else, and several studios let you watch them work. If you buy a piece, ask where the stone came from; genuine New Zealand pounamu should come with that answer, and a lot of cheaper jade in souvenir shops is imported. On 4 of our itineraries, a carving session is booked in. The Pounamu Pathway, an iwi-led storytelling experience, has a site in Hokitika and another in Greymouth. Our guide to Māori culture for visitors explains why it matters to be given pounamu rather than buying it for yourself.

Other things to do in Hokitika

• Hokitika Beach: a long, wild beach of grey sand and driftwood at the end of the main streets, with the town's name spelled out in driftwood. The sunsets over the Tasman are the best free show on the coast. Do not swim; the surf and rips are dangerous.
• Glow Worm Dell: a short track into a bank of bush at the north edge of town, beside State Highway 6, where glowworms shine after dark. It is free, open all night and takes ten minutes. Take a torch for the path and turn it off inside.
• The National Kiwi Centre: kiwi in a nocturnal house and a pool of very large, very old eels, which you can feed at set times.
• The West Coast Treetop Walk: 15 minutes south, a 450 m steel walkway 20 m up in the canopy of native forest, with a 47 m tower looking over Lake Mahinapua and the Alps.
• The West Coast Wilderness Trail: a cycle trail from Greymouth to Ross that passes through Hokitika, with bike hire in town for a day on the flat sections.
• The Wildfoods Festival: one Saturday a year, 13 March in 2027, when thousands of people come to eat huhu grubs and whitebait patties. Every bed from Greymouth to Franz Josef books out months ahead.

How to get to Hokitika, and driving Arthur's Pass

Hokitika is on State Highway 6, the coast road. From Christchurch you cross the Southern Alps on State Highway 73 over Arthur's Pass, then turn south at Kumara Junction. Hokitika Airport (HKK), on the edge of town, has Air New Zealand flights to Christchurch twice a day. The TranzAlpine stops at Greymouth, 40 minutes north, and shuttles and rental cars meet it.

People ask whether Arthur's Pass is scary to drive. It is a proper mountain road but a sealed, well-maintained one. The summit is 920 m, and the hard part is the western descent through the Otira Gorge, where the road drops steeply to the Otira Viaduct, opened in 1999 to carry traffic past the worst of the slips. Take it in a low gear, watch for kea on the barriers at the viaduct lookout, and do not feed them. In winter, carry chains and check the NZTA status before you leave; snow and slips close the pass a few times a year.

Is it better to stay in Hokitika or Greymouth?

For most people, Hokitika. It has the beach, the gorge, the carvers and a town centre you want to walk around in the evening. Greymouth is bigger and has the railway station and more shops, and it is closer to Punakaiki, so it suits a night before the morning TranzAlpine. They are 40 minutes apart. One night in Hokitika fits the gorge, the beach at sunset and Glow Worm Dell; two let you add Lake Kaniere, the Treetop Walk or a morning on the cycle trail before driving on to Franz Josef.

Hokitika weather and when to go

Hokitika is wet: about 2,900 mm of rain a year, nearly five times Christchurch, brought by the westerlies piling up against the Alps. It falls in heavy spells rather than every day, and the town still gets about 1,900 hours of sunshine. Average highs run from about 19°C in January to 12°C in July, and winter often brings long runs of clear, still, frosty days with snow on the peaks behind the town, which many locals think is the best season on the coast.

Summer, December to March, is the busiest and has the long evenings for beach sunsets. The gorge is at its bluest after a dry spell in any season. Sandflies are part of the deal from spring to autumn, so bring repellent. For the day you are here, check the MetService forecast.

Where to stay in Hokitika

Most accommodation is in town, along Revell Street and the beachfront, within a walk of the sunset and the restaurants, with motels on the highway and a few lodges in the bush outside town. The beachfront places are the ones to book for a first visit. Rimu Lodge, a few minutes outside town, is the property our itineraries use most, on 2 of them; the Beachfront Hotel Hokitika and Teichelmanns Bed and Breakfast, in the centre, also appear. On Wildfoods weekend, book months ahead or stay elsewhere.