A Tasty Weekend

A couple of weekends back, we drove to Hokitika, on the west coast, for the annual Wild Foods Festival. Pete was tired, as he had just come back from school camp, but had four hours of driving ahead. He kindly volunteered to drive the first leg to Arthurs Pass, which is about half way between Christchurch and Hokitika. After an extremely quick toilet stop we changed drivers and I took over the wheel.

After only another 30 km, just past a bend, and thanks to my alert co-driver Darren, I managed to perform an emergency stop in time to avoid an accident scene. Luckily, the driver immediately behind managed to swerve around us but the one behind him drove into our rear end and knocked us forward a little. Luckily, there were no injuries, and as far as we could tell, with the help of our torch, there was only small cosmetic damage. The tow bar had taken the brunt of the force and had been pushed up. The bumper was also damaged but the fuel tank was okay. After exchanging details with the other driver we continued our journey, with poor Pete driving, again.

Tiredly, we made it to Hokitika around 10.30pm. Time for a beer!

The next day we had a good cooked breakfast, a few beers and then made our way over to the Wild Foods Festival venue. Like the name suggests, one can try many wild foods, so I guess you are kind of puzzled why we attended this festival. After all, we are not the most adventurous of eaters. Well, not only can one try different 'delicacies', but large amounts of Monteiths ( a Westcoast beer) can be consumed. Perhaps that was the real attraction. Not wanting to be party poopers, we did try things we would not normally eat, like snails, worm truffles, mussels, possum pie, rabbit sausage, etc.

Do not be fooled, this photo shows Pete and Jen trying out a garlic covered snail, not an ice-cream as the banner behind suggests.
Vegies were catered for, too, although I still do not like sausage!Darren tried a tasty titty. Pete was not fooled by this name. As soon as Darren found out what he was eating (cows udder) it swiftly was spat out!We did not understand why Dutch food was considered a 'wild' food, but all I can say: Oliebollen are great!After the festival had closed we finished the day off chilling out on the beach with a crackling camp fire to keep us warm.

It is fair to say that apart from the prang, we had a great weekend and have already pencilled in another trip to the 'coast' next year!