PDF《Track》

Safety Your safety is your responsibility.

Plan properly for your trip and ensure your group has a capable, experienced leader. Fiordland'

s weather changes rapidly and it can become wet and cold suddenly and at any time of the year. Before departing, please check out current track and weather conditions at the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre in Te Anau. It is strongly recommended that you carry a Personal Locator Beacon and/or Mountain Radio. Topographical maps covering the Hollyford Track are recommended for navigation. Topo50 Maps CB09 C Hollyford Track, CA09 C Alabaster Pass and CA08 C Milford Sound/Piopiotahi are available for purchase from the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre in Te Anau. Further information For more information about the Hollyford Track please contact: Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre Department of Conservation PO Box 29, Te Anau, New Zealand. Tel (03)

249 7924, Fax (03)

249 0257 Email: [email protected] www.doc.govt.nz Published by Department of Conservation Southland Conservancy PO Box

743 Invercargill, New Zealand March

2011 Hollyford Track A guide to walking the Hollyford Track C Fiordland National Park Introduction The Hollyford Track is the only major low altitude track in Fiordland National Park that can be walked all year round C it also connects to the Fiordland coastline. This 56-km, four- day (one-way) tramping track starts at the Lower Hollyford Road and leads to the old port of Martins Bay. Situated among the sheer rock walls of the Darren Mountains, the track follows the Hollyford River/Whakatipu Ka Tuka on its journey to the sea. Features are the two lakes;

Lake Alabaster/Wāwāhi Waka and Lake McKerrow/Whakatipu Waitai. The site of the now abandoned Jamestown, which was established in the 1870s, can be found on the shore of Lake McKerrow. Human history Martins Bay, known to Ngāi Tahu as Kotuku, was an important Māori settlement between

1650 and 1800, allowing easy access to food resources in the nearby lakes, sea and forests―as well as pounamu (New Zealand jade), used to make tools, ornaments and weapons. Large trees on the river banks were felled to make canoes, and ancient Māori middens (ovens) have been found on the sea side of the estuary. The first explorers to view the Hollyford Valley were David McKellar and George Gunn in 1861, after traversing the Greenstone Valley to Key Summit, where they looked down on the long valley far below. Patrick Caples followed in

1863 who, while prospecting for gold at the head of Lake Wakatipu, continued up the Routeburn Valley, crossing over the Harris Saddle to the Hollyford Valley. He followed the valley all the way to the sea at Martins Bay, becoming the first European to do so. Dr James Hector, the first provincial geologist of Otago, visited that same year and travelled from Martins Bay up the Hollyford Valley, crossing to the Greenstone Valley, Mavora Lakes and then on to Queenstown. He reported favourably on timber and indications of gold, iron, copper and zinc in the area. He also suggested that a road could be built to provide better access. For financial reasons the road never came to fruition and it continues to be a controversial issue today. Jamestown was surveyed in 1870, with the hope of enticing pioneers to the West Coast of Otago. Several families initially settled but, by and large the settlement was doomed due to its isolation and only a few settlers stayed on in the area. Today, the Jamestown site is marked by ancient rose bushes and apple trees planted by the early pioneers. Among the early farmers of the region were Hugh and Malcolm McKenzie, who raised cattle at Martins Bay and drove them to saleyards at Mossburn, over