Hokitika, a Cool Town with Possum Fur

If we had known better, we would have stayed one or two nights in the sweet little town of Hokitka, just south of Greymouth. Just look at the brochure showing we could have done and seen.

The town has several stores selling pounamu, or NZ jade. This green stone is only found in the South Island, on the West Coast. It is treasured by the Maoris for its strength, beautify and connection to the spiritual world.

Chris checked out a store that had jade artists and watched them carving the raw stone into jewellery and art using traditional Maori designs - fish hooks, ferns, spirals, hearts, etc.

While he was doing that, I checked a store and its workroom called The Possum People. The ladies in the store gave us a lot of interesting info about NZ possums.

The species of New Zealand's possum is a Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula, from the Greek for "furry tailed" and the Latin for "little fox"). Brushtail possum is native to Australia. It has large and pointed ears and a bushy tail (hence its name).

In New Zealand, it was introduced in 1840s by European settlers, in an attempt to establish a fur industry. The quality of possum fur is very similar to sable. In fur industry, brushtail possum is always considered as top grade fur material. It is widely used in America, Italy, UK, Germany and etc.

Possum, like polar bear, has hollow-centre fur. This special structure will trap air inside the fibre, so that possum fibre is 30% warmer than wool and lighter at the same time. On top of that, unlike fox or ferret, possum fur is so extremely soft and comfortable to wear to your skin.

Since brushtail possums in NZ are only threatened by humans and cats, they are more densely populated than in their native Australia. There are millions of possums here, where it is considered as a serious pest because of the damage they do to New Zealand native trees, plants and wildlife.

Trapping and hunting possum has always been encouraged by New Zealand government. Therefore, possum fur products are considered as ethical fur and there is a saying:

Buy a possum product, save a tree.

We have seen many roadkill possums on our travels. Some people feed their dogs roadkill possums.

By the way, the possums here do not look at all like the opossums we see in Canada. In fact it looks like a completely different animal.

Possum and Merino knitwear is lightweight, very warm and can be easily washed. The store is full of items things made of knit blends made up of fine Merino wool, Possum fiber and a small percentage of either silk or nylon added for strength. I really want to buy some scarves or gloves made of this combination but it is expensive...

An interesting fact. The 2013 Man Booker prize winning book called “The Luminaries”, was written by Eleanor Catton and told a story about the gold era in Hokitika in 1866.Read more