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Every year the mysterious aromas of exotic food attract thousands of people to this festival. Visitors are going to watch an exotic food fans swallow crickets, chew on huhu grubs, struggle with sheep eyes and eat bull penis sausages. All these are cooked from fresh produce and are actually healthy food. And if exotic food is not enough for you then there will be a big party afterwards, which will last till morning.

History of the WildFood festival
Claire Bryant, local woman, instigated the very first celebration of local wild food which is coincided with the 125th anniversary of Hokitika foundation in March 1990. Since then the Wildfoods Festival has become a famous event in New Zealand.
While the first festival attracted a crowd of 1800 people, the number of visitors grew rapidly to peak on 2003 at 22,500 !

WildFood festival features
New wild foods are introduced every year. This year’s innovations include wasp larvae ice cream, cucumber fish, wok fried clams, sheep milk cheeses and much more.

Of course wild food is not the only attraction on the festival. Roving entertainment and continuous stage performances by bands, solo artists, mime, comedy, and much more will keep everyone excited and entertained all through the day and night.

About Hokitika
Hokitika is a township on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, 40 kilometers south of Greymouth. The resident population of the Hokitika is about 3,000 people.

Hokitika was founded on gold mining in 1864, being the center of the West Coast gold rush. By late 1866 it was one of New Zealand’s most populous centers. After gold rush faded the population of Hokitika greatly declined but now it is rising again thanks to “lifestlye inhabitants”.

For more information about the WildFood festival visit wildfoods.co.nz

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It was officially recognized that Ka Mate was composed by Maori leader Te Rauparaha in order to celebrate the rescue of a soldier from death in battle, which took place in 1820.

Obtaining the copyrights by Maori in many ways is merely symbolic, but it is very important for Maori leaders. Members of the tribe will not be able to claim any cash for violations of their copyrights, but from now on improper use of Haka for commercial purposes is prohibited.

The main purpose of this copyright is to prevent theft and «wrong» performance of Haka, as it happened, for example, in 2006.

Back then Fiat automotive company had issued a series of commercials in which Haka was performed by Italian wemen. While, according to Maori, this type of Haka dance is performed only by men.
Another scandal about the use of Haka took place in 2007. During the ceremony in which awards for the best bakery were given, Haka was performed by men, dressed in gingerbread comic outfits.

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Henry – the world’s oldest pangolin, a relic of the times of dinosaurs, who recently celebrated his 111th birthday – for the first time in his life became a father.

Henry is a tuatara – reptile endemic to New Zealand. The typical lifespan of tuatara is between 50 to 100 years, reaching maturity in 20 years. However, from the observation of New Zealand’s Southland Museum staff, Henry showed no interest in females for about forty years. The reason for this was partly because he had a genital cancer.

After successful operation in which the tumor was removed, another attempt was made to “reunite” Henry with the opposite sex, and this time successfully!

Mother of Henry’s children is the 70-year-old tuatara Mildred, who in July last year layed twelve eggs. Finally, in January 2009, nine little tuataras hatched. According to the museum’s curator they feel good, but Henry is not yet aware of their birth, because as curator said «if newborn pangolins come close to Henry, they may become his dinner».

According to DoC, to date there are about 100,000 tuataras who live in the wild, and are contained in the reserves. Henry’s habitat is the Museum of Southland, which is located in Invercargill (on South Island of New Zealand), which is likely to soon become popular among tourists.

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You can read more about Tuataras in my article titled Tuatara – The surviving Dinosaur

Current Theory

According to current theory, about 500 million years ago New Zealand was part of a giant continent Gondwana. Approximately 167 million years ago Gondwana started cracking, forming a smaller continents. New Zealand, Antarctica and Australia have long been connected to each other. It is believed that New Zealand has begun its separate life at about 130-85 million years ago. According to one theory, some 25-22 million years ago, it fully plunged under water, but later resurfaced. Such a conclusion was made due to the fact that in New Zealand haven’t been found fossils belonging to that period.

New Exciting Foundings

The discovery of this petrified ancient tuatara’s jaw by scientists who worked under the leadership of Marc Jones from University College London forces to revise this theory. Location of the teeth traces found in the remains of the jaw points to only one group of reptiles – tuataras. Age of discovery dates back to the period when New Zealand supposedly was under water.

The owner of discovered jaw must have got to the island after its resurfacing. Animals would have swam to New Zealand through the ocean. It is unlikely that tuataras could survive such a journey. In addition, in Australia, which is the only possible location from which these animals could arrive, remnants of tuataras have never been found.

The Alternative

The researches of UCL put forward an alternative version New Zealand’s past. In their view, it wasn’t completely plunged under water. Animals and plants survived on the dry parts of the islands. Scientists suggest that dry surface could be a very small part of New Zealand – up to one percent of its current territory. As proof of this assumption scientists point to Stephens Island. It has an area a thousand times less than one-hundredth part of New Zealand (!), but more than a thousand tuataras are living there.

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The report is very impressive. Duing 2008 Te Araroa trust has opened 14 tracks for the general public access. The total length of these fourteen tracks reaches 134 kilometers (83.26 miles).

While previously Te Araroa trust had to fund even the tracks across lands that are under DoC (Department of Conservation), 2008 was the first full year in which DoC began funding the Te Araroa tracks going through its estate. DoC also signed up 340 kilometers (211.27 miles) of Te Araroa’s route across existing DoC tracks, which is almost half of the 827 kilometers that needs signage! Wow, this is just great.

The report elaborates on Te Araroa’s activity in many regions including Southland, Otago, Canterbury, Marlborough, Wellington, Manawatu, Whanganui, Waikato, Auckland, and Northland.

Ta Araroa’s deadline for the complete walking trail across New Zealand comes on December 2010, and they seem to advace greatly toward this wonderful goal. I wish them all the best and Good Luck!

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