January 31, 2026
Today was a long drive day: 4 hours to Hokitika. I checked the weather forecast, and today and tomorrow were supposed to be nice in Hokitika and in Arthur's Pass, but the following day was supposed to rain. If we were to have any chance of seeing Hokitika Gorge in good weather, it would have to be today, since we would be in Arthur's Pass for the other good weather day. This plan would add another 40 minutes to the drive.
So we got an early start after saying goodbye to Rascal the cat. He had climbed up onto our bed the night before and was sleeping with us.
We stopped to fill up on gas and then stopped to buy more treats at The Bakery in Wakefield. Then we drove to the Hope Saddle Lookout. Google Maps had reported this area was closed, but we saw no signs telling us to keep out. It was a short hike to the trig at the top of the hill. The views were quite nice.
We drove on and had a brief stop to look at the view from the Upper Buller River Gorge on our way to the west coast. Then I took over driving and drove the remaining 2 hours to Hokitika Gorge.
The nice blue sky had disappeared and it was now very cloudy but not raining. I didn't have much hope for seeing any beautiful colors in the gorge. The last time we visited was in February 2019 when the water color was gray. It was such a disappointment. We tried again to see the gorge in 2023, but we ended up turning around before we even got there due to heavy rain.
So today I had set my expectations to very low. We walked up the beautiful path through the rain forest, turned the bend, and wow! The gorge came into view and it was so blue! We crossed the swinging bridge and walked down to the base of the water, admiring the gorge from various angles. A second very long swinging bridge had been constructed in 2020, the year after we had previously visited, so now there was a loop trail through the area. It was really nice.
Heinrich drove us back to Hokitika where as checked into our room for the next 3 nights at the Shining Star Beachfront Accommodation. We ended up getting the exact same room that we had when we stayed in 2023. It was a studio with a small kitchenette. We arrived just in time to seeing the evening train pass through.
For dinner we had chicken with honey and mustard sauce, rice, and a salad.
After dinner I walked out to the beach to watch the sunset, but I arrived a bit too late. The horizon was cloudy. I did manage to catch a little bit of color.
After dark we walked over to the Hokitika Glow Worm Dell which was just across the street. This had been a favorite activity in 2023, and it was just as much fun today seeing the clusters of glow worms.
