Surveyors Fox and Stephens

Following 1843 the Wairau was a 'No-Man's-Land' for some time and then in March 1845 William Fox, who had taken Captain Wakefield's place in Nelson, accompanied by Samuel Stephens, the Chief Surveyor, and three others came by boat to where Picton now is and made their way through the bush and swamp to here, where they located the graves and climbed the hill to get a good view of the Plains. Being an artist, Fox made a sketch and later worked it up into a water colour painting, this possibly being the first picture ever taken of the Wairau Plain. It is now in the Museum in Dunedin. Fox's party made their way up the valley by the overland route back to Nelson. When about to cross the Wairau river at what later came to be known as Vickerman's ford he made another sketch which shows the Bounds and the mountains near Top House. Stephens kept a good diary and in November 1966 his great grandson visited the area and stood on the hill (Tua Marina) and there he read what his ancestor had written in 1845. He was visiting New Zealand with the idea of seeing the locality where his forebear had lived as he hopes to publish the diaries.