Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson – Wild, Craggy, and Desolate

“It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast than that which exists between the level grass levels plains in the east of the Canterbury Province, and the rugged forest-covered country of the west.  Tasman, in 1642, described the west coast of New Zealand as a ‘great land uplifted high,’ reminding him of the ‘Island …

Captain James Cook (1728 – 1779)

When I read about Captain James Cook and his men camped out at Mercury Bay, I romantically envisioned the mighty ‘Endeavor’ at anchor amidst a rumbling blue ocean, the beach littered with its rowboats and the setting sun glistening off the surrounding greenery of Pre-European Nova Zeelandia! What tipped me into my ‘know no limits’ …