Turns out, the little river spot we found just before writing out last post was not only pretty, it was also one of the few places you can find pounamu (NZ jade), which is limited to a few river mouths along the west coast of the South Island, and also the Fjordlands.

While pottering around the morning after camping nearby, Kurt nudged a rock with his toe and asked if it was jade. We studied it, decided it might just be, and then proceeded to hunt for over an hour to see what else we could find. And then count and judge them (because competitiveness in marriage is healthy and needed).

Above: Some of the pounamu we found.

We didn’t know how rare it was until we chatted to a lovely gentleman in Hokitika. We’ll talk more about that a little further down, though. Don’t want to skip ahead!

After finishing off our last blog post, we hit the road again in search of fishing spots. Which, sadly, we didn’t find. The whitebaiters were out in full force and according to everyone we chatted to, whitebaiters do not share well, so we steered clear of them and tried to find areas they hadn’t claimed. Access points to the rivers were few and far between though, and instead of fishing we found ourselves wandering a few riverbanks and walking paths looking at pretty scenery instead. Not a total loss, but a certain bearded person was a little disappointed.

Above: Attempted fishing spots, and a ladybug! (It was cute.)

With no reason to stick around that area, we decided to head further up the coast, soaking in the awesome sunshine and coastal views.

We reached our next stop at Franz Josef and stayed at our one hotel on the South Island, the Rainforest Retreat.

IT WAS AMAZING.

The view was indeed rainforest-y, and there was a spa outside to relax in which was magic.

Feeling refreshed, we headed off the next day for another meandering drive. We stopped briefly at Lake Ianthe, hoping for some fishing fun, but were thwarted again, this time by weed… So much weed, catching in whichever gear we tried. To say Kurt was disappointed at this point would be an understatement. We’d really wanted to fish in the little bit of free time we’d carved out. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, so we headed further up the coast.

We made it to Hokitika just as some showers started. Not put off at all, we made the walk into Hokitika Gorge and… just wow. Worth every slightly-damp step.

Back in Hokitika for lunch, we stopped by Bonz N Stonz Carving. The shop has great reviews, helping people carve their own jewellery from bone or pounamu. We didn’t have the 4-5 hours needed to carve something this time, but we still checked out the store and chatted to the ridiculously friendly guy there. He checked out our smaller stones (the ones Nicole was carrying around by chance) and confirmed we’d actually done pretty well. Most of what we’d found was really pounamu. Apparently most of what is brought to him isn’t real (just greenish stones), but we had a success rate of more than 50%. So yay us!

Above: The Hokitika beach sign, and two of the stunning pounamu specimens from Bonz N Stonz Carving.

We didn’t have time to take the bigger stones back to him, sadly, but we’re 99.9% sure they are pounamu, based on how they look next to the ones he confirmed for us.

We finished off the day with another couple of hours of driving, to Murchison. We stayed the night at a neat little motorhome park out of the city which had free range eggs (yum).

Oh, and also we got the worlds biggest jar of honey (slight exaggeration, obviously). Nicole was trying to cheer Kurt up after his fishing depression kicked in, and… Look, she might have gone overboard. But he loves honey and it was the only size they had left!

Plus side, it is super yummy!