Julia Hut at the confluence of Mary and Julia streams - named after two sisters who drowned.

About this image

DescriptionThe two girls who drowned were Mary and Julia Griffin aged 11 and 8 , daughters of Patrick Griffin. The sad event occurred on the 14th of June 1876 as the accompanying newspaper clip explains. Their bodies were never found and the story goes that for years the mother could be heard every day calling out for them.

From Greg Ross:
Reminds me of the much time I've spent in the two Julia huts in the Taipo Valley, a very popular spot with hot springs beside the two huts there at the junction of Julia and Mary streams, named after the two girls (sisters?) who drowned there way back in the 1800s or early 1900s. Here is a photo I took in 2009 of trampers passing through after coming over Harman Pass, as they passed old Julia Hut at the hot springs at the confluence of Mary and Julia streams. I chatted with these old guys who were down from the North island for their annual tramp in the South Island, but, small world !!!, the guy in the blue jacket is Wally Drayton who taught many NZFS ranger trainees at NZFS Ranger School, including Alan Buckland, whom he remembered well(who doesn't?), and Alan Buckland was the Ranger-in-Charge in Hokitika, Westland, NZFS, from about 1981 to 1988. I worked under Alan while working for NZFS Hokitika, 1983/84, and Merv O'Reilly of Hokitika was Alan's boss there then. Merv, Alan, I and many others who had not seen each other for 30 or more years finally got together again in 2012 during the Hokitka 25-year NZFS Reunion, which was done on Facebook and brought around 500 ex-NZFS employees mostly from New Zealand and some from around the world.
You could pull off the road and have a magnificent view of the Taramakau River. The area is still there but no signpost. It is a couple of kms east of the Wainihinihi River on the old Griffin Farm.

Date of Photo1876Map^[1]External LinkNational Library

Shown in this image

Location (city or town)West CoastTaipoPersonMary GriffinJulia GriffinLandmark (Place)Julia CreekMary CreekEventDrowning

Category Information

Category Tagriverhuts

OCR Text Transcription Edit Edit +-Close

Editing is temporarily disabled

Cancel Edit

Start typing here to find a location	Latitude	Longitude	Zoom	Actions

loading google map....

Save Cancel

Menu

Julia Hut at the confluence of Mary and Julia streams - named after two sisters who drowned.

Editing is temporarily disabled