Day 17: Hokitika: Beachy Boxing Day

We took a morning hike to Hokitika Gorge, known for its cool blue water and suspension bridges.

After the hike we had lunch in the hotel room, followed by more beach time. We ended up with two separate rooms because they didn’t have a rollaway bed available. One room had this great balcony with a view of the street and a cool breeze from the big doors. The other had an alley view and was quite warm with no breeze. Nicholas is still up for hours every night with worry. He and I shared the alley room, hoping the quiet from the street would help, but it didn’t.

Seeing a Kiwi was top on my list, so we went to the National Kiwi Centre. We checked out the exhibits but purposely timed our visit to align with the eel and kiwi feedings.

There were approximately 30 longfin eels, all of which were born before World War II. We and the kids enjoyed feeding them steak.

Kiwis are the size of a basketball with a long beak and are nocturnal so we don’t have pictures, but the mated pair we saw were really cool.

The Kiwi Centre also had other distractions.

We have learned that both Christmas and Boxing Day are non working days here in Wanaka for most businesses. Fortunately, the beach is always open, and the grocery store was open, so we could get some ice cream.

The boys have loved running in circles and sliding in the sand. We did find some rocks we think our green stone or a type of Jade, but the shops to help us identify them were all closed.

With only one restaurant open in town, dinner took two hours. The kids got the “kids meal for two”, which they though was worth it because it came with ice cream.

After that, we read some Harry Potter (we’re on the 3rd book), and then went out to watch the sunset to wrap up our last night in Hokitika.