In the Scottish Borderlands on the banks of the River Tweed lies a small estate called Cardrona. Picturesque and pretty this Scottish vale, three miles from Peebles, is the namesake of the somewhat more dramatic Cardrona Valley in New Zealand’s stunning Lakes District.
A wild and mountainous landscape liberally endowed with majestic ranges and deep, vivid lakes, the Queenstown-Lakes district is arguably one of the most beautifully intense regions on Earth. Not a land to be taken lightly, there is both oral traditional and archaeological evidence of Maori dwelling here. Although habitable in the summer offering a favourable environment in which to secure a living, the winter months would have made the securing of adequate food and shelter for permanent settlement a challenge. Early Europeans settlers discovered middens near the mouth of the Motatapu and the Norman family found remnants of Maori potato gardens near Roy’s Bay. This encampment suffered a devastating raid by Te Puoho and his raiding party in the 1830’s, who then set off via the Criffel Face and Roaring Meg on their fateful excursion into Southland.
The two men, both with Scottish Border connections, credited with the naming of the Valley are early run holder R. Wilkin (via Herries Beattie) and surveyor J. T. Thompson (via J. Hall-Jones – descendant).
The first European explorer to approach the Upper Clutha was Nathaniel Chalmers in 1853. He travelled with Maori chief Reko of Tuturau in Southland as a guide, the fee being a three-legged cast-iron pot. He was taken up the Nokomai and down through the Nevis to the Kawarau, where he was shown how to cross the river on the natural bridge not far from where the Roaring Meg enters the river. Reko was aware of the Maori track up the Roaring Meg and then across the Criffel Face and on to Lake Wanaka, however their intended destination this trip was the Lindis Pass and then the Waitaki Valley.
They proceeded to the junction of the Kawarau with the Clutha and headed upstream toward the Lakes, however Chalmers was ill with dysentery and in a bedraggled state. Although the route was old, the challenges of the botanical bane of early explorers of the eastern interior of the South Island, was encountered. Matagouri, or of the spiky and incapacitating bush plagued the pair, slowing progress and reducing clothing to rags. It was this vegetal assault that caused Nathaniel to abort the journey, returning to the coast by river raft.
The first mapping of the area was the creation of J. T. Thompson and Alexander Garvie. They had been sent by the Provincial Government to survey the “waste land” areas of the interior to enable blocks to be leased for run holding. In February 1857 they named landmarks and sat at the top of Grandview naming landmarks and making the first drawings of the Upper Clutha.
The other route between Lakes Wanaka and Wakatipu known to Maori was by the Motatapu, Soho (Roaring Billy) Creek and the Arrow River passing behind Mount Cardrona. Greenstone chisels discovered in the Arrow Gorge and the Motatapu Valley evidenced this alternative route, the chisels being displayed in Arrowtown in the 1880s. First European explorers at Lake Wanaka, Edmund Jolly and William Young also attempted the Motatapu Valley route; they were performing a series of surveys for the Otago provincial government between 1857-1859. They did not complete the trip through Mount Motatapu, where they claimed to be unable to see Lake Wakatipu. Jolly and Young were unable to broach Cardrona Valley as a dense thicket of scrub obscured the entrance. The maps that these two men produced as a result of the survey made it possible for potential run holders to make application for land for sheep runs.
Robert Wilkin and Archibald Thomson travelled south via the Lindis from Canterbury and took up the first Wanaka run in 1858. Initially Cardrona Valley lay within the Pisa run boundary known as Wanaka South held by W. Mills but Wilkin soon acquired it. Wilkins’ runs then covered the majority of the area including Mount Pisa, the Criffel face and the land from the outlet of Lake Wanaka to present day Cromwell. John Roy held country to the west of Cardrona, but the primary centre for Upper Clutha at the time was Wilkins headquarters situated on the banks of the Clutha near the junction with Hawea River. Wilkin, a native of Dumfries in Scotland, employed a station manager and spent extended periods at the enterprise only as required.
In February 1860 a group of six men, including William Gilbert Rees and Paul von Tunzelmann arrived at Wilkins having set out from Moeraki. Their intention: to head to the Wakatipu to find suitable sheep country. Crossing the Clutha to reach Wilkins they lost a packhorse to the swift and difficult current. This necessitated a stay at the station headquarters for a few days to recuperate before proceeding. The initial plan was to head in the north-west direction, but after some reconnoitring it was decided those areas were too mountainous, too inhospitable. The decision was then made to head up the Cardrona Valley.
For two days Rees, von Tunzelmann and their men fought matagouri, scrub and steep inclines before leaving the Valley and climbing the hill to the west, most probably Mount Cardrona.
Rees wrote:
“A grand, but to us disheartening view was before us to the west and north. Nothing but masses of snow-covered mountains could be seen.”
William Gilbert Rees, February 1860
Descending again through the harsh, precipitous climes to the Valley below, they reached camp around midnight. After some discussion it was decided only Rees and von Tunzelmann would proceed up the valley. They returned to Wilkins and set off again with a month worth of supplies. According to von Tunzelmann Rees had apparently lost his chronometer on the previous day’s ascent; he searched for it but it was never found. Their second journey took them further up the valley before climbing the western ridge likely to be the Crown Peak.
Rees reports:
“an open country, not perfectly level but broken by small hills and terraces, whilst a large lake or arm of a lake stretched away in the distance almost as far as the eye could reach.”
William Gilbert Rees, February 1860
This was the first recorded ascent of the Cardrona Valley. Rees and von Tunzelmann burned off large amounts of country to enable the free movement of future stock. The following year, after a tortuous journey, they drove a flock of several thousand sheep up the Cardrona Valley in three days after Christmas 1860. Thus, a stock route was established across the infamous Crown Range.
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First published in “Cardrona – 150 Years in the Valley of Gold” by Ray O’Callaghan.