Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Mavora-Greenstone Walkway (South,
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)
4
Mavora-Greenstone Walkway (North,
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)
5
Rees-Dart Track (
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)
6
Matukituki Valley Tracks (
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)
7
Gillespie Pass Circuit (
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)
History
Although there are traces of early settlement in this area, it is thought that Maori primarily
passed through on their way between Central Otago and South Westland where they sourced
pounamu (greenstone), highly valued for its use in tools, weapons and taonga (treasure).
Maori expeditions in search of greenstone are said to have been conducted as late as 1850 -
about the same time the first Europeans began exploring the region.
In 1861 David McKellar and George Gunn, part explorers and part pastoralists, shed
some light on the Greenstone Valley when they struggled up the river and climbed one of
the peaks near Lake Howden. What they saw was the entire Hollyford Valley, which they
mistakenly identified as George Sound in central Fiordland. The great Otago gold rush
began later that year, and by 1862 miners were digging around the lower regions of the Dart
and Rees Rivers, as well as in the Route Burn Valley.
A prospector called Patrick Caples made a solo journey up the Route Burn from Lake
Wakatipu in 1863, and discovered Harris Saddle, before descending into the Hollyford Val-
ley and Martins Bay. Caples returned through the valley that now bears his name, ending a
three-month odyssey in which he became the first European to reach the Tasman Sea from
Wakatipu.
It was not until late in the 19th century that the first European crossed the Barrier Range
from Cattle Flat on the Dart to a tributary of the Arawata River. William O'Leary, an Irish
prospector better known as Arawata Bill, roamed the mountains and valleys of this area and
much of the Hollyford Valley for 50 years, searching out various metals and enjoying the
solitude of these open, desolate places.
Mountaineering and a thriving local tourist trade began developing in the 1890s, and by
the early 1900s it was booming, even by today's standards. Hotels sprang up in Glenorchy,
along with guiding companies that advertised horse-and-buggy trips up the Rees Valley. Sir
Thomas Mackenzie, Minister of Tourism, pushed for the construction of the Routeburn