HOKITIKA spelled out in oversized driftwood letters has become one of the West Coast town’s signature beach landmarks and most recognisable photo stops.
Before you stop
Use lawful nearby parking rather than attempting to stop at the sign coordinate.
Check where to stop
No arrival point is cleared for direct navigation yet
Private to your Passport.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Arrival details not yet cleared
We have researched the approach, but no stopping point is cleared for direct navigation yet.
This takes you to the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
42.71657° S, 170.95926° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
HOKITIKA, spelled out in driftwood on the beach, was built for a festival and never taken down.
Don Neale made it for the 2014 Driftwood and Sand Festival – the annual event at which sculptors work the enormous quantity of timber the West Coast surf throws onto this shore. Most festival pieces last until the next big tide. This one became the most photographed object in the district.
The material is the reason it works. Hokitika's beach is genuinely covered in driftwood, whole trees carried down the flooded rivers out of the Southern Alps and rolled up onto the sand, and the letters are made of exactly what is lying around them. There is no contrast between the sign and the setting; it is the setting, rearranged.
The backdrop does the rest. The beach faces due west into the Tasman, and the sunsets behind the letters are the reason the photographs exist in the numbers they do.
Its status has needed thought. Westland District Council has discussed the sign's ongoing semi-permanent installation, which is the correct description of something built as temporary art that a town has decided to keep. Driftwood weathers, shifts and needs repair, so keeping it standing is an active decision repeated year after year rather than a single act of construction.
Current tourism material promotes it as one of Hokitika's most recognisable features, alongside the gorge and the greenstone.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
Created by Don Neale for the 2014 Driftwood and Sand Festival, the sign became a permanent local landmark. Westland District Council has discussed its ongoing semi-permanent installation, and current tourism material continues to promote it as one of Hokitika’s most photographed features.
ACCESS
The Hokitika Beach Sign stands on the public beachfront at 72 Beach Street. Use lawful nearby Beach Street or beachfront parking and approach on foot; the exact sign coordinate is not a vehicle destination. Direct driving directions are withheld until a specific parking coordinate is independently map-checked.
