# Hokitika, N.Z./An Explorer's Impressions of Hokitika

An Explorer’s Impressions of Hokitika.
From Sir Julius von Haast ’s Records of his Visit in 1865.
Sir Julius writes, inter alia:—
On the morning of April 21st., 1865, we started early for Hokitika, along the beach, which, during ebb tide, offers generally fine travelling ground on a hard sandy bottom. The whole way appeared like a great main road rather than an ocean beach. Horses and riders, pack horses and their drivers, men with swags, waggons drawn by horses or bullocks—the whole a picture of earnest activity—proved that we were advancing towards the great centre of the goldfields. At the mouth of the small Waimea river, distant about five miles from the Teremakau, we found a settlement of small extent, consisting of about thirty shanties and canvas houses, mostly stores and public houses. There the road leaves the Coast for the extensive diggings at the head of this creek. A similar but larger township was found at the mouth of the Arahura, which we passed after a march of a few hours. The nearer we approached Hokitika, the more the traffic became animated, and when we at last entered the city of yesterday we could not conceal our astonishment that, in so short a time of only a few months, such a large place could have sprung up, which being literally built on sand, seemed at the same time healthy and clean. The principal street half a mile long, consisted already of a large number of shops, hotels, banks and dwelling-houses, and appeared as a scene of almost indescribable hustle and activity. There were jewellers and watchmakers, physicians and barbers, hotels and billiard-rooms, eating and boarding houses, and trades and professions of all descriptions. Everywhere the English language would of course be heard in its principal dialects, as well as German, Italian, Greek, and French and several other tongues. Carts were unloading and loading, and sheep and cattle driven to the yards; there was shouting and bell-ringing, deafening to the passers-by; criers at every corner of the principal streets which were filled with people—a scene I had never before witnessed in New Zealand. Hundreds of diggers “on the spree” and loafers were everywhere to be seen, but principally near the ​Spit and on the wharf where work went on with feverish haste.
Before arriving at Hokitika I counted seven vessels at anchor in the roadstead, amongst them a large Melbourne steamer; whilst in the river itself, five steamers and a large number of sailing vessels, were discharging their cargoes, reminding us of life in a European port. Owing to the shifting nature of the channel, which leads through the surf into the river, several vessels had been stranded amongst which were two steamers; however, one of them the Stormbird, was that day brought into deep water again. I pitched my tents in the Government camp, in which, in canvas houses, the Provincial Government Commissioner, Mr G. Sale, and the other Government officers, were living, and which contained also the Police camp, jail, and the offices of the Resident Magistrate and of the Goldfields Warden. For several days we had quite a deluge of wet weather, as it rained almost incessantly.
As soon as the weather had cleared up again, I started for the Waimea goldfields, to which the road was in a most wretched state, owing to the enormous traffic along a swampy forest track, although the Government had already begun to corduroy the worst portions. In the evening we reached the Waimea township, for which room had to be made by felling a number of trees in the luxuriant forest, here clothing the whole country. Although surrounded by a large digging population, there was very little loafing to be seen here. Of course diggers were coming and going, but the whole intercourse had a healthy appearance, and showed that its mining population was busily engaged on its claims. During several days I visited all the principal diggings in the neighbourhood, making myself acquainted with the mode of occurrence of the precious metal, and following the main branches of the Waimea to near their sources. I also went to Fox’s rush and some other goldfields on Fox’s and Red Jack’s gullies, falling into the Arahura; afterwards I proceeded to the source of the Kapitea, and visited Callaghan’s and German Creeks and some others in the neighbourhood, and thus obtained an insight into the nature and extent of the goldfields in that part of the West Coast.
I may state, that the whole goldfields as far as visited, were found to be deposits of a very large river of pre-glacial age, those portions being only preserved which had not been reached during the Great Glacier period of New Zealand by the advancing gigantic glaciers, or by the enormous torrents issuing from them.
The next stage was to Greymouth, which showed signs of wonderfully rapid progress. Five years ago I had camped at this spot in solitude, with no European excepting three companions near me for a hundred miles, and only a few Maori whares in my neighbourhood, and now rows of large houses were built and a busy life gave signs of healthy progress all round. Several days were devoted to a visit of the Grey Coal Measures, where I found a hearty reception from the Manager of the coal mine on the Nelson side.
Returning to Hokitika on the 9th. May, I examined, on my way, several claims on the seabeach which appeared remunerative and which would thus offer additional ground for a great number of diggers without any additional outlay. Intending to ascend the Hokitika and its tributary, the Kanieri, I obtained not without trouble, a canoe from the Maoris, for which I had to pay two punds sterling a week (they ​had soon fallen into the European way of charging goldfield prices.) Leaving the town of Hokitika next day and ascending the river, we had to cross several shingle reaches where the water formed rapids, before we arrived at the small township of Kanieri, at the junction of Kanieri river and where I remained a day studying the interesting and instructive occurrence of gold. The numerous shafts sunk in the township itself and all around it, gave me a clear insight into the manner in which the auriferous beds had been formed.
On the following morning we had for a few miles, a delightful paddle up the still and deep brown water of the Kanieri Creek, dammed back by the shingle bank the Hokitika has thrown across it at its junction; this passed, its course became very winding, rapid succeeded rapid, which to ascend gave us considerable trouble, whilst a number of large trees fallen across the water obstructed our passage considerably. We reached at last a spot about five miles above the junction, where further ascent was impossible, and where considerable mining operations—the so-called Five Mile diggings—were in progress. Here, as at the Kanieri township, the wash-dirt had very often been protected by younger morainic accumulations covering it, and have thus been preserved from destruction. At this place, again, I was detained by continuous rain for about a week, but our camping ground was so well sheltered that we never felt any wind, whilst, as I heard afterwards, a fearful storm had been raging along the Coast, houses having been blown away at Hokitika and other settlements and several vessels amongst them the steamer Waipara having been wrecked not far from the mouth of the Hokitika river.
On May 21st we were at last able to continue our journey and reached in the evening the shores of Lake Kanieri, having travelled the greater part of the day over terraces, mostly swampy, the ground covered with Sphagnum, of which the principal vegetation consisted of kahikatea, totara and manuka, mixed with Phyllocladus alpinus and kawaka (libocedrus donianus), but all the trees were small and had a rather stunted appearance; but in the gorges of the tributary streams or along the banks of the river bed, the forest vegetation was very luxuriant and magnificent, the presence of large aborescent ferns adding considerably to the beauty of the scenery.
Lake Kanieri, although small, being about five miles long by two miles broad is a very picturesque piece of water, as it is surrounded on three sides by high mountains with bold outlines, the lower portions being covered with luxuriant forest. It owes its origin to a large semi-circular terminal moraine which crosses the valley from side to side, and through which its outlet has cut a passage. A low saddle is conspicuous near its upper end, leading into the upper Hokitika plains where several roches moutonnees on both sides show distinctly that a portion of Kanieri glacier had here joined the extensive Hokitika glacier during our Great Glacier period,
Returning to Hokitika for a fresh stock of provisions, we started again on May 25th. to ascend this time, the main river, visiting first the Woodstock diggings on the left bank, where I observed a geological structure of the gold-bearing beds similar to that of the Kanieri township deposits. The river presented a very animated scene, a number of boats and canoes ascending and descending; tent houses and small settlements peeped in many spots from amongst the fine forest vegetation which clothed the banks on both sides whilst ​in still more numerous localities, the smoke curling above the treetops betrayed the existence of human inhabitations. The weather was now very fine, and the view up the river upon the high mountain chains, rising abruptly at the end of the plains, exceedingly beautiful—the dark green vegetation ascending for several thousand feet and contrasting strikingly with the pure white garment of snow with which the higher portions of the ranges were uniformly covered.
Near the junction of the Kokatahi the Hokitika turns abruptly to the south-west and changes its character becoming, for more than a mile a deep slow flowing river, the shingle deposits of its smaller but more rapid tributary having damned the waters of the main river back to a considerable extent. Its left bank consists of large morainic accumulations covered with forest vegetation, the right bank being low and covered with shrubs and ferns. The landscape has now undergone considerable change, a wide plain, mostly covered with veronica, olearia, coprosma, leptospermum, and coriaria bushes stretching to the high mountains. In the midst rises an isolated range, called Te Koi-itarangi, about 800 feet high, which has a roche moutonnee-like appearance. Some others, of which one has the form of a regular cone, stand at the foot of the outrunning spurs of the high ranges which bound the horizon.
We now left the busy abode of the mining population, and entered the solitude, although many trial shafts along the river-bed, and afterwards along the high banks near the Hokitika Gorge, proved that numerous prospecting parties had tried their fortune in many localities, without obtaining the desired results. An attack of fever, without doubt caused by being continually in wet clothes, kept me here for several days in the same camp; however, owing to the use of some strong doses of quinine, I soon felt much better, and was able, on May 30th, to reach the foot of the ranges, where the river enters the plain in a deep gorge, the vertical or overhanging walls on both sides of which consist of gneiss-granite. The water in this gorge was so deep, that we could nowhere find the bottom with the large pole we had in the canoe, and there was no perceptible flow.
Passing through this really fine Gorge, about half a mile long, we found the river bed above it so rough and full of large blocks of stone, and the water so rapid, that we could not take the canoe any higher. We therefore continued our journey on foot, for some distance, to enable me to examine the geological structure of the district. In every prospect we obtained gold, but it occurred in such small quantities, that it would not pay for its extraction by the mining processes now in use. A wild mountain landscape surrounded us here, and as the river was flowing in a nearly straight valley for a considerable distance the eye could not follow the outline of the spurs which appeared behind each other, those most distant getting generally higher and more rugged. Heavy rain set in again, which, however, did not prevent me from returning to Hokitika, and we reached it, owing to the swollen state of the river, in about three hours and a half; having been three days ascending to the same camp. My two Maori companions had here ample opportunity to show their skill in guiding the canoe through all the obstacles in our way, of which drift trees were the most dangerous, but ​which they accomplished most successfully.
I have not alluded to the fine and extensive mountain view, visible from the sea beach at Hokitika, and which stretches from the mountains in the north, to the Hooker range in the south. A chain of wooded mountains situated between the Totara and Wanganui rivers, their outrunning spurs nearly reaching the sea, are prominent in the south. They are about 2000 or 3000 feet high, wooded to the summit, and form a very interesting feature in the landscape. Above them rise, conspicuously, the highest summits of the Southern Alps—Mount Beaumont, Mount de la Beche, Mount Haidinger, Mount Tasman, Mount Cook, Mount Stokes, and the Moorhouse range. In very clear weather, other snowy mountains show above the horizon of the sea, but often so faintly that very often they may easily be mistaken for white clouds.