Hokitika is the wild, creative essence of the West Coast: a small town between the Tasman Sea and the Southern Alps, with a beach of silvery driftwood swept by the surf, fiery sunsets and a giant driftwood sign spelling 'HOKITIKA' where everyone stops for a photo. It's the world capital of pounamu (New Zealand jade), and its main streets are lined with galleries and workshops where you can watch carvers shaping the sacred stone of the Māori.
The area's big natural draw is Hokitika Gorge, half an hour from town, where the river runs a milky turquoise, tinted by glacial 'rock flour' from the Alps; a swing bridge and an easy trail through native bush make it one of the most photographed spots on the West Coast. Add to that the glowworm dell (a free glowworm grotto on the edge of town), the Treetop Walk above the forest canopy and the National Kiwi Centre.
Hokitika sprang up almost overnight during the 1865 gold rush, when it became the most populous town in New Zealand, with more than 100 bars and a port as busy as it was dangerous, littered with shipwrecks. But long before that, it had been a centuries-old centre for gathering and working pounamu for the Māori of Poutini Ngāi Tahu. Today it's a relaxed, artsy and authentic place, perfect as a stop on the West Coast road trip or as a destination in its own right for anyone after jade, nature and good wild food.
For centuries, the mouth of the Hokitika River was a Māori centre for gathering and working pounamu (jade), the sacred stone of the Poutini Ngāi Tahu people, guarded by the taniwha Poutini. In 1860 the chiefs signed the Arahura Deed, selling almost 3 million hectares of the West Coast to the Crown for 300 pounds. In 1864-1865 the discovery of gold turned the town into the most populous in the country, with a feverish, dangerous port where dozens of ships were wrecked. The full story, from Māori jade to the gold rush, is on the history page.
Read the full history ↓The wild western coast of the South Island, ancestral home of Ngāi Tahu pounamu (greenstone), transformed by the 1864 gold rush and by coal. A remote rainforest shoreline where the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers come down almost to the sea, and where the stacked rocks of Punakaiki stand.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Before there was a town, before the gold and the ships, the mouth of the Hokitika River was already one of the most important places on the South Island. For centuries this coast was the heart of pounamu, the green jade found only on the western side of the Alps. Its name gives the whole South Island its name too: Te Waipounamu, 'the waters of jade'.
The story of pounamu is told through Poutini, the guardian taniwha. He is a supernatural being who travels the waters of this coast, protecting the mauri, or life force, of the stone. According to tradition, Poutini fell in love with a woman named Waitaiki and fled south with her. When he was pursued, he turned her into pounamu and left her in the bed of the Arahura River, just north of Hokitika. That is why the Arahura holds the finest jade, and why the Māori of this coast are called Poutini Ngāi Tahu, in honour of the taniwha. The local group, Ngāti Waewae, remains the guardian (kaitiaki) of these lands and their stone to this day.
Pounamu was never just a commodity. It was taonga, an inherited treasure with its own name and genealogy. It was carved into adzes, fish hooks, ceremonial weapons (mere) and pendants (hei-tiki, koru), and it travelled along trade routes that crossed the Alps to the east and north of the island. The mouth of the Hokitika was a centre for gathering and working the stone, a place where knowledge built up over generations. When the Europeans arrived, they didn't find empty land. They found an ancient jade economy that they were only beginning to understand.
The first big change came from a document, not from gold. In 1860 the chiefs of Poutini Ngāi Tahu signed what is known as the Arahura Deed, which sold almost the entire West Coast to the Crown, around three million hectares, apart from small reserves for Māori. The price was 300 pounds.
That sum was tiny even at the time, and it reflects the pattern of dispossession behind land purchases across the South Island. The Crown acquired huge territories for very little money, along with promises of reserves, schools and hospitals that were largely never kept. Ngāi Tahu spent more than a century seeking justice for these deals, in one of the longest-running grievances in New Zealand history. The 1998 Treaty of Waitangi settlement finally recognised the injustices and offered redress.
There is, however, one notable exception in this story of loss. Pounamu, the stone that gave these people their identity and livelihood, was legally returned in 1997. That year the Ngāi Tahu (Pounamu Vesting) Act gave the iwi ownership of all natural jade within its tribal territory. Poutini's sacred stone went back to its guardians, at least in law. That is why the authentic jade sold in Hokitika today is tied to Ngāi Tahu, and buying from reputable workshops is part of respecting that history.
Everything changed with a glint. In 1864 two Māori men, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau, found gold near the Taramakau River. The news set off one of the most frantic gold rushes in New Zealand history. By the end of that year there were already around 1,800 prospectors on the West Coast, and in 1865 a flood of miners and traders arrived from all over the world. Within months, a whole town had sprung up out of nowhere at the mouth of the Hokitika.
The numbers are astonishing. In 1866 Hokitika was the most populous settlement in New Zealand, with more than 25,000 people, over 100 bars and a port buzzing with activity. Between 1864 and 1867 some 37,000 prospectors came in through its port, and almost overnight its muddy streets filled with hotels, theatres, banks and newspapers. It was the heart of the West Coast Gold Rush, an instant, cosmopolitan and chaotic society with a strong Irish presence that has left its mark to this day.
But the wealth came at a brutal price. Hokitika's port sat at the mouth of a treacherous river full of sandbars, and it was both the busiest and the most dangerous in the country. Between 1865 and 1867 there were 108 strandings and 32 ships lost. Shipwrecks were so common that they became part of the landscape. The easy gold soon ran out, as it does in every rush, and the population fell as quickly as it had grown. Many moved on to new goldfields, leaving behind a town that had been, for a brief moment, the largest in New Zealand.
When the gold ran out, Hokitika had to reinvent itself. The economy turned to native timber such as rimu and kahikatea, which grew in abundance in the West Coast rainforest, and to farming and pounamu work, which never stopped being the region's signature. The once-frantic port slowly lost importance as railways and roads linked the coast more easily to the rest of the country. The town settled into the quiet rhythm of a small, isolated community, with the independent, weathered character that defines the 'Coasters', the people of the West Coast.
The clock tower, the old banks and stores on Tancred Street, the historic wharf and the remains of the port all bear witness to the golden era. The town kept its mining-town layout and its human scale, while the rainforest and the sea continued to set the pace of life. Far from the major tourist routes of the 20th century, Hokitika kept an authenticity that many other places lost.
Meanwhile, jade found a new lease of life. Over the 20th century Hokitika became the centre of pounamu art in New Zealand, with generations of carvers, both Māori and Pākehā, keeping the tradition of working the stone alive. In the galleries in the centre of town you can watch artists shaping jade. They are the direct heirs of an ancient craft that began with Poutini Ngāi Tahu.
Today's Hokitika lives off its character. It's a small, creative and untamed town that has turned its isolation into a strength. The beach of silvery logs, with its huge driftwood sign and some of the most spectacular sunsets in the country over the Tasman Sea, has become an iconic image of New Zealand. In summer the Driftwood & Sand sculpture competition turns the beach into an open-air gallery.
The big event of the year is the Wildfoods Festival, held every second Saturday in March. It's a wild food festival where people try huhu grubs, unusual seafood and extreme ingredients amid music and fancy dress. It began in 1990 as a small celebration, now draws more than 10,000 people, and put Hokitika on the national map. On top of that, some attractions cost next to nothing, like the Glow-worm Dell, a glow-worm grotto on the edge of town, or the dazzling Hokitika Gorge, with its milky turquoise river coloured by glacial rock flour.
Behind the postcard, the history is still alive. Ngāti Waewae, the local hapū of Ngāi Tahu, has reaffirmed its role as guardian of the land and of pounamu, and the jade carved and sold in Hokitika today carries the genealogy of Poutini and Waitaiki. This town was a short-lived gold capital, a port of shipwrecks and an ancient centre of jade. Within a few blocks by the sea, it brings together several of the South Island's great stories: the guardian taniwha, dispossession and redress, and a community that learned to thrive on the edge of the country's wettest rainforest.
