Camping in New Zealand, small items left lying around are at risk from thieves.

I was reminded of this whilst sitting on the foundation stones of what was once an old gold miner’s hut, the iron remains of the roof and perhaps chimney at my feet, reading a novel with my tent pitched on the other side of the clearing where the thief stalked.

Stamping battery

How many from outside Australasia see New Zealand as a place where men—and it was mostly men—boarded sailing ships to come and explore the rugged interior with dreams of riches?

The 1860s gold rush boosted the colonisation of New Zealand. Who could resist the description of Gabriel Read in May 1861, reporting his discovery of gold in Lawrence near Dunedin where I live:

At a place where a kind of road crossed on a shallow bar I shovelled away about two and a half feet of gravel, arrived at a beautiful soft slate and saw the gold shining like the stars in Orion on a dark frosty night

(The public heard of his prospecting a few weeks later via an account in the Otago Witness in June.)

While the rush started near the Southern coast, it spread to many areas. Central Otago is, perhaps, the better known of these, but remains of this era can still be found in many other areas of New Zealand.

Some of these reminders of early New Zealand can be found in the hills. A few tracks, now used as easier tramping routes are distinctly cut as former narrow wagon trails on step hillsides. In a few clearings in odd corners of the country are the remains of where some hardly soul lived alone, eking out a life digging or panning the precious metal.

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