Hokitika Wildfoods Festival

Since it began in 1990, the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival has built a reputation unlike any other food event in New Zealand. Held each March in the small West Coast town of Hokitika, on the driest day the region typically sees all year, the festival was founded by local producer Claire Bryant as a celebration of the wild, foraged flavours of the West Coast — and it has stayed defiantly true to that spirit ever since.

Where most food festivals lean toward comfort and familiarity, Hokitika leans the other way entirely. Alongside more approachable options like whitebait fritters, marinated venison and traditional Māori hāngī, stalls proudly serve huhu grubs, mountain oysters, crocodile bites and other genuinely unusual delicacies, daring visitors to step outside their culinary comfort zone. A playful Feral Fashion Show and live entertainment round out what is, at its heart, a celebration of adventurous eating and West Coast identity.

What started with just 30 stalls and 1,800 visitors in 1990 has grown many times over, moving to the larger Cass Square venue to accommodate crowds — but the festival's original, slightly mischievous spirit has remained fully intact.