The timing of the eclipse coincided somewhat with the timing of the Wild Foods Festival, an annual party in Hokitika on the west coast of the South Island.

Going from Christchurch to Hokitika the weekend of the festival wasn't unlike going from Reno to Gerlach on Labor Day Weekend -- a long line of cars going in one direction with frequent speed traps.

The city park in the center of town becomes the festival venue, food vendors set up little tents, and thousands of people wander around and sample the goods.

Here Ray has some possum paté.

This place advertised Mountin Oysters and HuHu Shooters. HuHu is a type of grub, which they serve in gin. We didn't really care for gin, so we didn't end up having any huhu.

We did have some Mountin Oysters (sheep balls), delightfully sauteed and served on a slice of bread.

Here's a popsicle made out of gorse flowers.

People posing with their deep-fried beetle brochette, and cricket on baguette.

The sliced fried bull penis was entirely gristle and unchewable, and I spit it out and threw it away.

The New Zealanders drank plenty of beer and engaged in conversation with us about our beards.

No one told us it was a costume party. Or, maybe these aren't costumes.

Smurf drag.

Getting food was easy -- nothing took longer than five minutes. Getting beer, on the other hand, was a major 45-minute ordeal in a very crowded large tent. These partiers definitely had their priorities.

They did crank out the beer as quickly as they could.

This fellow said he was recovering from some dramatic bit of brain damage, but he's careful not to recover too fast.

This woman lives in Zambia, and knows the guy who drove us from Lusaka to the eclipse in Kafue National Park in 2001.

Passing out after drinking too much subjects you to arbitrary abuse from your friends.

We only came for the food -- the party went on into the night featuring music including this Rolling Stones cover band, who were pretty good.

On to Glacier Country