Westland Greenstone Ltd

They say that the place to buy Jade is in Hokitika. Although I did not buy any, this store was a museum in and of itself. It was fun to watch the Jade carvers at work. They have many large pieces of jade to look at and their display cabinets are filled. I found it a little pricey but would recommend a visit if in the area.

This store in Hokitika is a fabulous place for shopping for New Zealand Jade. Several jade items at reasonable pricing are available at this store. I shopped more than I anticipated. Customer service is extremely friendly and courteous. Would certainly very highly recommend this store for jade shopping to anyone.

We did a quick tour of the factory,watched tradesmen and women create master pieces, the staff and workers were more than helpful with any questions,well worth a visit here.

We enjoyed the backroom tour of the workshop and the opportunity to chat with one of the artists creating the pounamu items. This, though, was one of our first stops in Hokitika with a great selection of greenstone, so we purchased here. As the trip progressed, we did find that there were likely better deals to be had.

On a drive up the Coast Highway (past Franz Joseph Township) we stopped in Hokitika and enjoyed a backroom tour and carving demonstration here. The manager and his staff at Westland Greenstone were informative both about the history of mining greenstone by native peoples and, later, by European settlers, and about the geology of the area that produces this gem quality mineral. After learning about what is often called New Zealand jade, we went into the shop and looked at all the hand and machine created jewelry made by the staff. Beautiful items and what was nice is that there was a sale going on of the previous Christmas season’s unsold decorations and jewelry. This was a very good learning and shopping experience.