Legendary Coasters App
The voices of Westland’s past are calling. Legendary Coasters, a new self-guided heritage app, invites users to explore the lives, legacies, and landscapes of Westland’s most remarkable characters—right from their phones.
Part history, part adventure, the app combines storytelling with location. As users move through Hokitika, they’ll hear directly from legendary figures— gold miners and mountaineers, healers and hoteliers, schemers, trailblazers, and visionaries—brought vividly to life through talking photographs and a scavenger hunt-style trail. Follow the clues, uncover the stories, and literally hear from those who helped shape the district.
Featured characters include Dr. Ebenezer Teichelmann, the pioneering surgeon and conservationist; Sister Mary Gertrude Joyce, sister of James Joyce who buried her brother’s last manuscript somewhere in Westland; Ah Quong, a Chinese market gardener entangled in land disputes with Richard Seddon; and the elusive fictional ‘Emery Staines’, whose tale was immortalised in Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries.
The app is set to launch with the Legendary Coasters competition, where we invite locals and visitors alike to vote for their favourite character. Every voter enters the draw to win one of six Hokitika adventures, with the total prize pool valued at $6,000!
The app will be officially ‘launched’ at the Museum Fun Opening Day on 28 June, with the reveal of the app’s ‘Talking Wall’. For more information, please get in touch with the Hokitika Museum.
