by Neville Peat
At Glenorchy, about fifteen homes were flooded, and the road link with Queenstown looked as if it had been bombed, with the tarseal ruptured and overturned from numerous washouts. It would be ten days before the road reopened. Boats from Dart Jet and Queenstown launch companies ran a freight and passenger shuttle to and from Queenstown.
Things went exceedingly quiet in the Caples and Greenstone Valleys. The road down that side of the lake was closed for nigh on three months.
REFERENCE
Further Reading
Books
Bradshaw, Julia, Miners in the Clouds: A Hundred Years of Scheelite Mining at Glenorchy (Arrowtown: Lakes District Museum, 1997)
Dougherty, Ian, Arawata Bill: The Story of Legendary Gold Prospector William James O’Leary, new edn (Auckland: Exisle, 2000)
Duncan, Alfred H, The Wakatipians (1888), (Arrowtown: Lakes District Centennial Museum, repr. 1969)
Gaze, Peter, Rare and Endangered New Zealand Birds: Conservation and Management, (Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 1994)
Hay, J. R., H.A. Best and R.G. Powlesland, Kokako (Dunedin: John McIndoe/New Zealand Wildlife Service, 1985)
Heather, Barrie and Hugh Robertson, Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand (Auckland: Penguin Books, 1996)
Glover, Denis, Arawata Bill: A Sequence of Poems (Christchurch: Pegasus Press, 1953)
Glover, Denis, Sings Harry and Other Poems (Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1957)
Griffiths, G.J., King Wakatip (Dunedin: John McIndoe, 1971)
King, Carolyn M., The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1990)
Molloy, Les and Craig Potton, New Zealand’s Wilderness Heritage (Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing, 2007)
Oliver, W.R.B., New Zealand Birds (Wellington: A.H. and A.W. Reed, 1930)
Orbell, Margaret, Birds of Aotearoa: A Natural and Cultural History (Auckland: Reed, 2003)
Peat, Neville, Land Aspiring: The Story of Mount Aspiring National Park (Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing, 1994)
Peat, Neville and Brian Patrick, Wild Central: Discovering the Natural History of Central Otago (Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1999)
Quammen David, The Song of the Dodo (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996)
Schama, Simon, Landscape and Memory (London: Fontana/HarperCollins, London, 1995)
Stacpoole, John, William Mason: The First New Zealand Architect (Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1971)
Tennyson, Alan and Paul Martinson Extinct Birds of New Zealand (Wellington: Te Papa Press, 2006)
Turbott, E.G., ed., Buller’s Birds of New Zealand (Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1967)
Reports
Anderson, Atholl and Neville Ritchie ‘Pavements, Pounamu and Ti: The Dart Bridge Site in Western Otago, New Zealand’, New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 8 (1986)
Blakely Wallace Associates, Glenorchy-Head of the Lake Community Plan (Glenorchy: Glenorchy Community Association, 2001)
Buckingham, Rhys, Confirmed Presence of Kokako on Stewart Island (Invercargill: Department of Conservation, 1987)
Chandler, Peter, Land of the Mountain and the Flood: A Contribution to the History of Runs and Runholders of the Wakatipu District (Queenstown: Queenstown and District Historical Society, 1996)
Heath, Sue, Rock Wrens in the Southern Alps of New Zealand (Melbourne: Flora and Fauna of Alpine Australasia, CSIRO,1986)
Hitchmough, Rod, Leigh Bull and Pam Cromarty, New Zealand Threat Classification System Lists 2005 (Wellington: Department of Conservation, 2007).
Holdaway, Richard N., Trevor H. Worthy, and Alan J.D. Tennyson, ‘A Working List of Breeding Bird Species of the New Zealand Region at First Human Contact’, New Zealand Journal of Zoology 28 (2001) 119-187
McFarlane, David, ‘A Tourist Paradise: The Development of Tourism at the Head of Lake Wakatipu 1860–1914’ (unpublished History honours thesis, University of Otago,1983)
Mulcock C.M., Tussock Grasslands, South Island, New Zealand: Our Heritage (Timaru: South Island High Country Committee of Federated Farmers, 2001)
Ockwell, Geoff, ‘Understanding Place: A Case Study’ (unpublished Physical Education Master’s thesis, University of Otago, 2001)
Robertson, C.J.R. et al, Atlas of Bird Distribution in New Zealand 1999–2004, (Wellington: Ornithological Society of New Zealand, 2007)
Ross, Malcolm, ‘The Ascent of Mount Earnslaw’, The New Zealand Alpine Journal 1 (1892)
Ross, Malcolm, ed., ‘Two Ascents of Mount Earnslaw’, The New Zealand Alpine Journal 1 (1893)
Scott, Iris (compiler), The Head of the Lake: A Community Centred on Glenorchy, (Glenorchy: Runholders/Rees Valley Station,1989)
Turnbull I.M. (compiler), Geology of the Wakatipu Area (Lower Hutt: Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, 2000)
Websites
www.glenorchy-nz.co.nz
www.mountainlandrovers.co.nz
www.nevillepeatsnewzealand.com
Index of names
(italicised numbers refer to an illustration)
A
Aitken, David
Aitken, Isabella (Poppy)
Aitken, Jane (Granny)
Anderson, Atholl
Angelo, Ros
Asher, Dave
Ayson, Alexander
B
Bennett, Mike
Bennett, Rachael
Birley, Harry
Birley, Joseph Karley
Blomfield, Charles
Bool, Jim
Buckingham, Rhys
Buller, Sir Walter
C
Caples, Patrick Quirk
Chalmers, Nathanael
Child, Peter
Cleveland, Les
Crouchley, Dave
D
Darby, John
Davis, Corrine
Davis, Thor
Diamond, Jared
Dougherty, Ian
Douglas, Charlie
Duncan, Alfred
F
Fenn, Bernard Samuel
Fenn, Christopher Cyprian
Fenn, Joseph Cyprian , ––
Fenn, Joseph (senior)
Fenn, Mary
Forbes, James David
Fortune, C.H. (Harry)
G
Gaskin, Chris
Gibbs, Lilian
Glover, Denis
Gollop, Ben
Guthrie-Smith, Herbert
H
Hasselman, Amanda
Hasselman, Mark ––
Hector, James
Hill, Ronny
Holdaway, Richard
Holloway, Jack
Holloway, John
Hyink, Otto
K
Keen, Ron
Keen, Sarah
Kendrick, John
Kent, Thelma
Knowles, Kath
Knowles, Stan
L
Lawrence, Barry –
Lindstrand, Per
Lopez, Barry
M
Marti, José
Martinson, Paul
Mason, Kate
Mason, William –
McBride, K.
McCormick, Gary
McDonald, Elfin (see Shaw)
McDonald, Gordon
McKerrow, James
Meredith, George
Michelsen-Heath, Sue
Miller, David
N
Nilsson, Ron
O
O’Leary, Mary
O’Leary, Timothy
O’Leary, William (Bill, Arawata Bill)
Ockwell, Geoff
Ockwell, Grace
P
Peacocke, Isabel Maud
R
Rees, William Gilbert
Reischek, Andreas
Reko
Ritchie, Duncan
Ross, George
Ruahine
S
Scott, Diane
Scott, Doug
Scott, Eric
Sc
ott, Graeme
Scott, Henry
Scott, Iris –
Scott, Jean
Scott, Kate
Sekercioglu, Cagan –
Sharpe, David –
Sharpe, Ernie
Sharpe, Marion
Sharpe, Peter
Shaw, Annie
Shaw, Betty
Shaw, Elfin (McDonald) –
Shaw, George
Simpson, George
T
Temple, Philip
Thomson, Geoffrey –
Thomson, Jill
Thomson, John Turnbull
Thomson, Reta
Thomson, Tommy
Thoreau, Henry David
Thornton, Jack
Turnbull, Ian
V
Veint, Jim –
Veint, Lloyd
von Guérard, Eugène
von Humboldt, Alexander
W
Watson, Dick –
Watson, Gordon
Watson, Wattie
Whakatau, Kaikoura
Williams, Vaughan
Wilson, Thomas
Worthy, Trevor
Acknowledgements
I could not have presented this story without the cooperation of a cross-section of the Head of the Lake community. I am grateful for the generous assistance of runholders Iris Scott and her daughter Kate (Rees Valley Station), Mark and Amanda Hasselman (Temple Peak Station), Jim Veint and Ros Angelo (Arcadia Station) and Geoffrey Thomson (Mount Earnslaw Station). The Paradise Trust’s Rory Gollop, Geoff and Grace Ockwell, Per Lindstrand and Rachael Bennett gave freely of their time, knowledge and anecdotes. I delved into the Head of the Lake’s early history with the help of Elfin McDonald, Lindsay Kennett, Richard Kennett, Rory Gollop, Pat Gollop, Dick Watson, David Sharpe, David Galloway, Peter Johnson, David McFarlane, Jim Veint and Geoffrey Thomson. Karen Swaine of the Lakes District Museum in Arrowtown provided historical material, and Matapura Ellison and Edward Ellison advised me about the Māori experience of the district. Gerald Arthur of the New Zealand Geographic Board provided information on mountain names and the origin of the names. Linda Holloway gave me information on the Holloway mountaineering legacy, and shearers Ronny Hill and Jim Bool updated me on the practice and history of blade shearing. Thor Davis and David Sharpe shared their possuming knowledge. Dermatologist David W. Young investigated ‘birch itch’. I thank them all.
For information about the South Island kōkako and records of it, I am indebted to Rhys Buckingham and Ron Nilsson, whose dedication to the search for the bird is inspiring. John Kendrick, an equally impressive ornithologist and recorder of bird vocalisations, kindly sent me a tape of ‘presumed’ South Island kōkako calls. I also thank Cagan Sekercioglu, now a bird extinction specialist from Stanford University, California, who reported seeing a kōkako on the Routeburn Track in 1995, and Barry Lawrence, who shared his knowledge of local natural history and the South Island robins. Others who gave me advice on native birds and nature conservation were John Darby, Ian Flux, Sue Heath, Otto Hyink, Ron Keen, Euan Kennedy, Richard Kennett, Les Molloy, Neill Simpson, Philip Temple and Ian Turnbull. Jane Forsyth assisted with Dart Valley geological information.
On the illustrative side, I thank the Lakes District Museum and archivist Karen Swaine in particular, the Hocken Library, Alexander Turnbull Library, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery and Department of Conservation for the use of historic photographs and artwork. Thanks also to Allan Kynaston for the map on p. 8. The poetry of Denis Glover is reproduced with the kind permission of the Denis Glover Estate and Pia Glover.
To the team at Longacre Press, especially publisher Barbara Larson and editor Emma Neale, thanks so much for your expertise and support. Creative New Zealand provided a project grant to assist research a few years ago, and I completed the writing with the support of the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers’ Fellowship 2007.
Neville Peat
Broad Bay, February 2008
Copyright
The writing of this book was completed with the support of the Creative New Zealand Michael King Writers’ Fellowship 2007.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the publisher.
Copyright © Neville Peat
Published 2008 by Longacre Press
30 Moray Place, Dunedin
ISBN 978 1 87746 014 2
eISBN 978 1 77553 538 6
A catalogue for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.
Design by Christine Buess and Katy Yiakmis
All photographs by Neville Peat unless otherwise stated
Map by Allan Kynaston
Printed by Printlink, Wellington
www.longacre.co.nz