Hokitika Wildfoods Features Sunshine And Fun

Hokitika Wildfoods Features Sunshine And Fun

A near capacity crowd of 18,000 once again took their taste buds on roller coaster trip of a lifetime at the 16th annual Hokitika Wildfoods Festival at the weekend.

In a week where the true grit of West Coast community spirit was seriously tested in neighbouring Greymouth by Thursday’s tornado, Hokitika residents hosted a quadrupling of its regular population and turned on the sunshine to feature new tastes that would “put wrinkles in your toenails” according to one visitor.

Westland District Mayor, Maureen Pugh, said the capacity of the town amazes her and “the spirit of good clean, safe fun makes me very proud of our district.”

“A big feature this year seemed the higher proportion of overseas visitors who had heard about us from the most unlikeliest of sources – not only is it good for our district, but it is good that these guests will be spreading the message about New Zealand as a fun place to go.”

A swarth of international media included a US cable TV cooking programme, “The Cooking Guy”, featuring Sam Zien who hosts a weekly show that has won four Emmy Awards over the past two years.

Ninety one stalls, with a balloted-out list, not only featured the classic huhus, possum pies and whitebait in many cloaks, but cows’ udders, Chatham Island seagulls, paua titties (roe), bull, lamb and goat testicles, gorse flower wine and gourmet garden snails all had their followers. The best stall prize was won by a group called Bushfire, serving horopito flavoured goodies - native pepper tree leaves.

The magpie pies, one of many farm pests on offer, proved more black than white to most foodies being one of the first stalls to sell-out. DB chief executive and key sponsor, Brian Blake, whose premium brand Monteith’s is the official mouthwash, opened the event.

Entertainment on three stages and at the after-dance attended by more than 4000, included the New Zealand Army Band in its various guises, a Rolling Stones tribute group and a myriad of performers including “live” poets. Maureen Pugh said the Festival continued to be a major economic boost for the community and “would be something highly prized by any Council in New Zealand.”

“Its is unique in that there is no ratepayer funding, all the direct revenue goes straight back to the community through the groups that run the stalls and manage things like the camp sites – some treat it as their annual fundraiser overcoming the need for raffles and cake stalls.

“Their profits can be up to $10,000 in some cases and when you aggregate all the wider spend by visitors, the district would easily see an injection of something near two million. Not bad for a town of 4,000.”

Mrs Pugh said visitors seemed to appreciate the weekend downtown glass and vehicle ban imposed by the Council, with Police arrests, mostly for disorderly behaviour down on last year.

Mint sauce with this? Mountain oysters are one of the bigger dares for gourmets. Previewing this piece of protein from the nether region of the lamb, Jessie Brown (holding) and Kailah Stuart from Hokitika (salivating). Yeah, right. Sacred Heart Golden Oldies from Greymouth are riding this big fish all the way to Rarotonga. Fundraising selling turbot fillets with a sandfly sauce for their next tournament are (from left): Therese Keating, Moya Fitzmaurice, Charlotte Doige and Marianne Molloy.

Thanks for the mammaries – fried cows’ udder was one of the new foods on offer this year. From Christchurch, Anna Lambourn, Heather Lawson and Debbie Care.

Dress ups were all part of the de riguer – an imposing looking “squash” team from Christchurch.

Never trust a skinny chef, so the saying goes – Jason Haar returned home from the US to help cook eel fritters for the Kiwi Rugby Club midgets.

Getting down on the popular wild berry waffles were Haulwuen Davies and Valerie Bowater from Greymouth.

Otago students, Laura Craighead and Melanie Neal spent $16 on their sailors’ costumes and $1 on the live huhu.

Sweating over a $1 – Bob Poulter from Mid Canterbury soccer who are veterans of eight Festivals, use the event to assist a Japanese kids’ team to come to Ashburton for an annual tournament.

Customer Heke Rikiana with local IHC team of Kevin Edwards, Fran Edwards and Sandra Armstrong – featuring freshly smoked fish donated by Westfleet to assist with fundraising for new furniture for their community houses.

“Do you measure up” – a serious question for all Festival goers. Part of a group of 19 led by Suzanne Watkins who travelled from Sydney to be there.

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