hokitika

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Viceregal visiting

  • Viceregal visiting

    'To be invisible is to be forgotten,' constitutional theorist Walter Bagehot (1826–77) warned. For the King or Queen's New Zealand representative, the governor-general, that meant hitting the road

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  • Page 4 - Some say yes; some say noLike his predecessors, Sir Denis Blundell (1972–7) travelled widely throughout New

Town on the north side of the Hokitika River, near its mouth, 39 km south of Greymouth. After the discovery of gold in the Taramakau valley in 1864, prospectors started arriving at the Hokitika River mouth, the closest anchorage to the diggings. During 1865 a flood of gold prospectors and traders arrived, and the town was occupied and booming within less than a year. While most miners lived close to the diggings where they worked, Hokitika was the town they went to for supplies, recreation and to sell gold. For a short period, Hokitika had a population of over 4,000. The river port at Hokitika was hazardous, and was little used after the main gold rushes.

Meaning of place name
Hoki: to return; tika: direct. A band of Ngai Tahu warriors in search of greenstone were about to attack a Ngāti Wairangi pā, when the chief of the invaders was drowned while trying to cross the river. The leaderless taua then returned directly to their own home.