Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Hokitika, New Zealand

Dear Family and Friends,

One of the west coast towns we visited was Hokitika.  Chuck had two main places he wanted to check out.

Yep, you are seeing it correct.  He wanted to go to the Sock Museum and the Possom Market.



The sock museum had a lot of antique sock knitting machines.   They had more socks for sale in one place than I have ever seen before.  Let's face it, when you spend six weeks in one little country you have time to get off the beaten track.  

The other place he wanted to visit was the possum shop.  Possums are not native to NZ.  They are an introduced pest. 

They actually make things out of possum hide and fur.  Gloves, socks, coats out of the hides and the fur is used along with wool to make sweaters warmer.  

I still have not warmed to the idea of having possum anywhere near me, but Chuck is walking around with possum fur shoe liners.  He swears they are very comfortable.  Just wait until I share with my southern relatives all the things possums are good for besides roadkill.

 The town is small but quite lovely.  Here is a view of the main street with the clock tower in the distance.


As luck would have it we were there on Thursday and a huge annual festival was kicking off the very next day.  The Wildfoods Festival.  We were considering staying until we saw what they meant by "wildfoods."


We decided it was time to head on up the road.  

Love,
Nancy





No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are welcome.