First European explorers - Heaphy, Brunner etc PHOTO ALBUM

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DescriptionFirst European explorers - Heaphy, Brunner etc ContributorTony Kokshoorn

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EventFirst European explorers - Heaphy, Brunner etc

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CommentsJohn Rosanowski
Brunner's "Longest Journey" is an interesting and informative narrative, Well worth locating and reading in full. His relationships with his guides and Ngai Tahu tell of early local contacts with pakeha and form an important part of his story. Brunner was looking for land worth developing for agriculture within the Nelson province, (which had very little available left in the Nelson area) and concluded that the only promising open area was around Fern Flat , just north of Reefton.

Pete Lusk
John Rosanowski Yes, Brunner was looking for land. From memory, he was paid by a group of Nelson businessmen to do so.

Kevin O'Regan
Agree John it truly is

Pauline Schafer
They certainly had tough conditions.

Pete Lusk
In his writings, Brunner was full of praise for one of his guides, Kehu, but had nothing good to say about the other three. Yet it was one of the women who saved his life, when she swam out into L Rotoroa to retrieve their Waka which had come adrift. By this late stage of their journey, Brunner was so ill he could hardly walk.
However, to Brunners credit, he had Kehu live with him when both were in old age and Brunner had a large house in Nelson.
(Brunner was a surveyor, and laid out the town of Westport in the years after his journeys. In later histories, he is lauded as an explorer. But he was really a land prospector who was guided along regular Maori trails)

Pete Lusk
An interesting part of Brunners account is when the party was returning from Mawhera/Greymouth, and he had the choice of returning via a mountain pass to Christchurch.
But his four guides refused to travel the route because the women were runaway slaves from Ngai Tahu territory and feared being captured and killed.
So the party went via Grey Valley, across the saddle to Inangahua valley, down that river to the Junction, then back up the Kawatiri/Buller to L Rotoroa…and finally to Nelson.

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First European explorers - Heaphy, Brunner etc *PHOTO ALBUM*

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First European explorers - Heaphy, Brunner etc PHOTO ALBUM