Well, apart from kayaking on the beautiful Okarito Lagoon, Okarito offers a great range of peaceful nature based experiences.
Okarito Design
Okarito Design
Whilst there are no shops in Okarito, there is the odd special bit of shopping to be done.
Mel Dalzell creates Okarito Design craft items – beautifully and individually hand-made printed cushions and furniture, with design elements strongly influenced by the prolific birdlife of the area.
Mel will make items to order, or we have a limited number of designs from Mel in the kayak shop for sale.
Walks
Okarito Trig Walk, Three Mile Lagoon and the beach
The hour and half return walk up to Okarito Trig is maybe one of the most rewarding for the effort in NZ. The views at the top from the historic survey point stretch from Three Mile Lagoon and the coast to the south, across the breadth of Westland Tai Poutini National Park, Mt Cook and the Southern Alps, to the impressive expanse of Okarito Lagoon to the north. The path is well made and marked, starting at the car park in the middle of the village.
For those wanting to stretch their legs a little further, the path to Three MIle Lagoon continues past the turn off for Okarito Trig, and undulates through pristine forest to exit on the remote beach at the mouth of Three MIle Lagoon. There are often great views up towards the Alps from the beach that continues south from here, and you may well have the place just to yourself, even on the busier days of summer. It takes around 3 hours 30 to go out and back from Okarito; the beach can be used to walk back or out only if the tide is close to it's low point. A tide timetable for the beach is posted at the car park in the centre of the village.
If the climb up to the Trig is not for you, or time is more limited, then following a circuit through town and back along the beach gives you a great sense of the area. The beach can be accessed easily from the end of the road, and often coming back along the beach keeps the prevailing south-westerly wind at your back.
It's well worth a brief visit to the old Wharf building on the edge of the lagoon, visible as you drive into town on the right – the displays inside describing the history of the area and the outlook from the Wharf deck give you a great sense of the lives of those who battled out a living on the remote edges of South Westland. We suspect the Wharf building is probably the most photographed building on the West Coast.
Massage
The Studio, Okarito
The Studio in Okarito offers really good Swedish massage.
We know this because this is where we go for our own maintenance after a hard day lifting kayaks; Laura basically keeps us going right throughout the summer and can tailor your massage for your personal needs.
Highly recommended after a big kayak or hike along the coast to help well-used muscles.
Photography
Photography
Okarito is a photographers paradise; the range of scene and light attracts photography workshops throughout the year.
It helps that the town is home for Andris Apse, maybe New Zealand's best renowned landscape photographer. You can occasionally catch him at home, when he's not off in search of new subjects throughout the country and overseas, and ask him to open his private gallery at his house.
Andris' study of Okarito residents from 2007 is on display on the walls of Donovan's Store also; hang around for a music gig and you'll get to see them.
Music
Music
Our village hosts many concerts throughout the year, mainly in summer. On average, about once every two weeks of the summer there's a touring band or artist playing at Donovan's Store in the evening; artists we've had here include perennial favourites The Eastern (Okarito's kind of a second home for Adam McGrath – just not sure where his first home is), Paul Ubana Jones, The Bads, Great North, Robert Scott, Tiny Ruins … even Don McGlashan. It's a long and impressive list!
Proceeds from the gigs usually go towards the artist, but with a capacity of only about 40 at Donovan's, these aren't stadium gigs. Music with love.
These nights are pretty special we think and we're very lucky to get such talented artists come to our small village. Check out Donovan's Store or posters at the kayak shop for upcoming gigs.
Kiwi and Boat Tours
Kiwi and Boat Tours
The Okarito forests are home to the Rowi/Okarito Brown Kiwi, the rarest of the five species of kiwi found in NZ. There are as few as 600 or so individuals left; the Rowi is a shy nocturnally-active flightless bird, and incredibly hard to find! Luckily, Okarito is also home to Ian Cooper, and his Okarito Kiwi Tours.
Ian runs trips into the forests of Okarito most nights of the summer; these trips are very popular and Ian only takes a limited number of people so as not to disturb the birds and have a much greater chance of success of viewing Rowi in their natural environment. It's advisable to book well in advance to ensure a spot. You can find his office in the middle of the village on the left as you drive through Okarito.
There's also the opportunity to see Okarito Lagoon by boat; Okarito Boat Tours, piloted and guided by Swade, operates tours throughout summer across the lagoon viewing some of the 70 odd species of birds that have been observed in the area. Their office can be found on the left just before the turn-off to the wharf.
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