There are numerous food festivals that glorify food around the world, but there is one festival where you can enjoy savoring out-of-this-world dishes, the Hokitika Wild Foods Festival.

A small township located in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island, Hokitika comes alive every March, when thousands of foodies trek to the township to celebrate the Hokitika Wild Foods Festival. The township was once the center of West Coast Gold Rush, and a vibrant port in the 19th century but its population has dwindled together with its major industries. Today the township is being developed as an eco-tourism destination, with the help of the Hokitika Wild Foods Festival. Hokitika is accessible by land travel from Christchurch or you can fly into the township via the Hokitika Airport which has five flights a day to Christchurch. The township is just 2 kilometers away.

The Hokitika Wild Foods Festival began in March 1990 which coincided with the 125th anniversary of the founding of the township. Since then, it has attracted thousands of tourists and foodies who cannot get enough of its wide selection of exotic foods such as chocolate beetles, seagull eggs,  lambs' testicles, known as mountain oysters, pigs' trotters, sphagnum moss candy floss, whisky sausages, battered scorpions and grasshoppers, whitebait patties, and colostrum cheesecakes, and a sip or  shot of outrageous concoctions. There are also stalls that serve “normal” food and drinks if you are not daring enough. You can also enjoy live entertainment by numerous New Zealand artists, and shop for souvenirs in one the stalls.  

If you are daring enough to try foods that cannot be found anywhere else, book a trip to Hokitika in March, and enjoy the Hokitika Wild Foods Festival.