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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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The Mountain Radio Service is essential for all of them. You see, New Zealand’s nature is very unpredictable and sometimes can be very dangerous. Especially if you are new to the country and not familiar with its rapid weather changes.

For example during heavy rain (which can start suddenly and unexpectedly) rivers can rise and cut you off from civilization for hours or even days. And there is virtually no cellphone coverage in the backcountry so you won’t be able to call for help.Here is when the Mountain Radio Service comes in handy. So how it works? Pretty easy:

Before the trip you hire a radio, which is not so heavy to carry (1.2kg for the smaller one and 1.8kg for the larger, spare batteries included). There are many base stations scattered across New Zealand providing coverage for most of the backcountry areas. One time a day base station generates a call (referred to as a “sched”), during which the base station operator gives weather information and takes details of the location and intentions of hikers.

Operator can also call to your contact people regarding changes to your plans or your pickup times caused by bad weather or flooded rivers. If you are in emergency then operator, of course, will help you deal with it using any means necessary.

When you hire the radio, you will receive all the details about setting it up and using it. One important thing to know is that when you’ll have to use the radio, you will have to string a long aerial wire, which could take more than 10 minutes in bush or rough terrain.

Mountain Radio can be a life saver, and it also gives you a great amount of peace of mind during your hikes in the wildest areas of New Zealand.

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I know it may not be the popular opinion (esp in NZ), but somehow this whole thing just feels wrong to me. Copyright infringement isn’t stealing and it shouldn’t be confused with stealing. It’s copyright infringement. (i.e. If you make a copy of my writing, I still have it… as opposed to if you steal my pen and paper then I no longer have either of them.) Copyright law was designed for a specific purpose to do with promoting creativity by giving creators a temporary monopoly, and it’s supposed to expire so that other people can continue to build on existing creative works for the benefit of everyone. It’s not supposed to protect information forever, though a few large media studios would love it if it did, and are happy to buy off as many lawmakers as they can to try and achieve this.

But what I’m very uncomfortable about is that some Maori people are doing this with the intent if preventing people from “mis-using” the haka. That’s not what the semantic idea of copyright is supposed to be for. Without even having had any sort of arrangement or contract or treaty with nearly anyone except the British Crown, the intent seems to be to somehow try and leverage a legal technicality throughout the world that has nothing to do with what Maori people actually want. I don’t think Maori people should be allowed to control how French people mock New Zealand any more than I think French people should be allowed to control how New Zealanders mock France. I can’t imagine how it’s actually going to work or reliably hold up in the long term. If it’s possible to protect the haka through copyright then I suppose there must be some kind of legal technicality, but by any copyright laws I understand, any copyright on Ka Mate should have expired well over 100 years ago!

I sympathize that some people may find it discomforting when others satirize or misrepresent their culture and beliefs, but I do think it’s important to be able to take it on the chin and just accept that not everyone will respect you. Outside NZ people get so riled up that they fight wars and kill each other over others satirizing their beliefs and ideals. We’re fortunate that we live in a relatively peaceful country and I’m certainly not trying to imply that any Maori people would ever go so far, but in my opinion trying to suppress satire shouldn’t be acceptable when it can simply be ignored. It’s part of free expression and it goes both ways for mutual benefit to everyone. Maori culture will always be what it is, no matter how many times ignorant people perform an embarrassing fake haka in stupid gingerbread costumes. Anyone who wants to learn about the real culture can always find out about it any time they want to.

My two cents.

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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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