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I have read that years ago it was the custom in Scotland for a prayer to be said as the old-timer crossed a bridge: "God bless the bridge and the man who made it." It is a sentiment that could well be echoed by those who cross treacherous rivers in the northern part of the South Island. It was many years after the first settlers arrived before bridges became common and various methods of crossing the swift and treacherous rivers were used. We recount the experiences of some of these settlers and explorers.

Fording on Foot

In the earliest days the only mode of travel was on foot and rivers had to be forded. This led to many drownings and to one of the earliest tragedies in the Nelson Settlement. William Curling Young, the company agent, with his friend Titchener, had been inspecting sections in Waimea West on behalf of absentee clients and attempted to cross the Wairoa River. Titchener, in a letter to the Nelson Examiner explains what happened: I was in front, in the middle of the stream I was carried off my feet but managed to struggle to the bank – the same bank from which we started. The deceased was caught in the same current and carried down stream." Amid wide-spread mourning he was buried in the Haven Cemetery on 17 August 1842.

Charles Heaphy, who with Brunner and Fox and the Maori guide Kehu, made the first journey from the Howard into the Buller area, gives us a vivid account of crossing that river just below its junction with the Mangles, a crossing which could easily have ended the career of Mr Fox.

"The 'big river' was now to be crossed; from the wooded terrace above, it appeared but a couple of feet deep, and its fording seemed easily practicable, but from the beach the appearance of the large body of water which rushed down became more formidable, and each instinctively hesitated before advancing into the stream. For about thirty yards from either side of the shore the water glides smoothly along with a current one might undoubtedly bear up against; but in the centre it rushed with impetuosity in a deep hollow wave to its greater velocity below the ford, where it became a race crested with a high and broken ripple.

"The native looked at the river, made one of his comical grimaces, and entered the stream, the depth of which now became apparent, and ere he reached the centre of the river the water was up to his waist. One or two of the party now ran to the side of the river, in order to be able to afford assistance should he be carried down; but with once or twice staggering when exposed to the greatest pressure, and a spring downward with the current as he reached the further bank, he reached the opposite side in safety, not forgetting to evince his contempt for the river and his exultation in having crossed, in a series of grotesque gesticulations and vehement abuse of the river and all its tributaries.

"Mr Fox now followed into the stream, and attained its centre without much difficulty, but the pole he used bent under him while bearing against the heaviest rush, and it was a matter of critical uncertainty as to whether he would attain the bank which he was approaching; a few steps more and he would be past the worst of the current, when he appeared for an instant to totter, and the next moment was swept down the race entangled with his load. Fortunately the river was deep or the consequences would have been fatal (had it been shallow he could have been knocked senseless on the boulders). Recovering a swimming position, he swam to the further shore, and was in a short time, across which, however were not the remaining two of the party, whose spirits were not at all elevated by the fortune of those who had gone before them. Mr Brunner determined to follow down the river to a better ford, where the water became more expanded upon the plain, and I swam over above the ford where the current was less rapid." – Early Travellers in N.Z. Edited Nancy M. Taylor.

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Mr Explorer Douglas, who spent long years in South Westland exploring for the Lands & Survey Department, wrote in a diary of one of his trips, some observations on the crossing of dangerous rivers: "On the subject of fording how few people really know what precautions to take. I am not speaking of those Dunderheads who take the head of a straight rapid, or cross a certain place simply because that happened to be the ford when they were there a few years ago. Such people are past being spoken to. But take the men who do know a little, just watch them going into a river, they never look to see where the current they are going to cross runs to – where they would land if a tumble took place, and every man Jack of them partly unhitches his swag with the full intention of chucking it away if a tumble does take place. Why the fools, unless they are carrying stones or ironmongery, an ordinary swag will float for two or three minutes and is as good as a small raft and if a man will only throw it off, but keep the straps in his hand, it gives a splendid purchase to enable you to gain your feet, if, as is more than probable, footing is there to be gained.

Today my swag would certainly have sunk, as I had a rifle, axe and a lot of rocks and very little else. But I had two good Billys, and I rolled them empty in the centre of the swag, with their lids tightened on with a strip of greased calico, and I am sure the swag would have kept me above water for half an hour. A bundle of flax sticks broken ito small pieces and jammed into a bag will float a man easily, but the art in safe fording is always to select a place with the current running into a bank. You are out and clawing up on the shore almost before you are aware that you have been washed off your feet."

– from Mr Explorer Douglas edited by John Pascoe.

The early surveyors and explorers learnt a great deal from the Maoris especially when it came to the crossing of rivers. Gerhard Mueller gives perhaps the best description of the use of a pole: He was surveying in the West Coast area. "It was a bad river and having some among the party who could not swim a stroke, I got a pole of about 15 feet length, put Kerei at the top to break the current the four men next, then myself and Bob to the end of the pole. This, Kerei told me, is the Mauri way of crossing rapid streams and I thought I could not do better than adopt the same plan. In rapid rivers it is an advantage to have a load to keep you down and prevent your legs from giving way. Certainly without the pole we would not have got across at all. It is a splendid institution and worth knowing to anyone travelling in New Zealand.

In using the pole certain things must have attention paid to them – to keep the pole breast high; to walk with short steps; and to keep exactly in line with the current. The effect of the latter is that top man on the pole –Kerei in this instance – gets the full strength of the current, the water parts, and the men below him get the benefit of that, walk in shallower water, and are consequently better able to keep him abreast the stream. So, in crossing one of these rivers, Kerei (who was always at the top of the pole) would get wet up to the shoulders, whilst others far towards the end, as Bob, would scarcely get wet to the thighs. Bob, being a strong man, was always at that end, ready to get hold of anyone who might lose footing. Such, however, was fortunately never required, as we crossed all the rivers without the slightest accident."

– from "My Dear Bannie" by Gerhard Mueller p.55.

Crossing on Horseback

It was not long before the trails became horse tracks, the bush was cut back and travellers could ride and loads be carried by pack horses. Many horses developed an uncanny skill in crossing rivers, but it was still dangerous. Harry Louis Moffat, in his reminiscences speaks of "the melancholy task of looking for the body of a close relative (his brother) in the Matakitaki River." The horse had crossed safely, but slipped when climbing out on a steep and muddy track.

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Christopher Holloway, visiting New Zealand in 1874 to assess its farming potential, describes his experience. He had a tiring day in the saddle riding from Murchison to Kerr's Lake Station via the Mangles, Lake Rotoroa and the Porika Track. At last they reached the Howard River, where his guide admitted that he really did not know where the ford was. However he blithly said, "Give the Doctor (the horse) his head and I will follow you over." Holloway was not too happy about it but they crossed safely. It had rained all day and he was glad indeed when they saw the lights of Lake Station where they were hospitably received. (Typescript Alexander Turnbull Library.)

About the same time, a little later in the year 1874, a lady, who had lately arrived from England rode from Foxhill to the Maruia with George Moonlight and his packhorse team. They came down the Buller, to the Owen and on to the Long Ford. The Buller was in flood and it was too high to cross, so they had to return to the Accommodation House at the Owen. After three days they returned to the ford and Moonlight decided to drive his pack team over, if they crossed safely he could also. The team managed to cross though the current took them half a mile down the river. "It was a most peculiar sensation when the horse's feet left the ground and it commenced to swim," wrote the lady. (Quoted by Ella Matthews in "Yesterdays in Golden Buller" 1957).

One of the saddest stories was of the drowning of the Hon. Constantine Dillon. The Nelson Examiner, 23 April, 1853, records that he was drowned on the previous Saturday. N. G. Morse, a man named Pasley and Dillon's young son were in the party who attempted to cross the Wairau opposite Manuka Island. As his son was riding a small pony, Dillon put him on his horse and said he would lead the pony across. Although Morse objected and offered to bring his horse back, Dillon was determined to cross on foot, he would hold on to Pasley's stirrup. As they crossed the horse became fidgetty and both men rolled over the edge of the nearby falls into deep water. Pasley managed to reach the horse and, holding on to him, to gain the bank. It was thought that Dillon was kicked by the horse and stunned. His body was found two days later and there was general mourning throughout the colony.

Rafts and Canoes

Near the mouth of a wide river it was advisable to cross by raft or canoe. Here again the Maoris were the experts. Heaphy wrote the diary of the trip made by himself, Brunner, the faithful Kehu and another Maori down the West Coast from West Wanganui to Kawatiri and Aruara (the mouth of the Buller and Arahura). They set out from Nelson on March 17, 1846, and from West Wanganui on the 27th. By April 20th they were at the mouth of the Karamea River. The diary continues:

"21st (April 1846): Heavy rain; the river much flooded. Constructed a raft of flax stalks of korari, in length about 22 feet and in breadth about 4 feet 6 inches. A raft of this kind is now seldom seen. I will therefore give a description of its construction.

"A sufficient quantity of the dry flower-stalk of the flax being collected, which is not done without considerable labour, it is lashed tightly into bundles, each about 10 inches in diameter and 20 to 24 feet long. Two of these bundles are then placed side by side and are equivalent to the garboard strakes or planking next to the keel in a boat. They are left with square butts aft and, the natural bend of the stalk being taken advantage of, the bundle is formed convex in its length towards the water; the top or slender part of the stalk is placed forward, and the pointed end of the bundle becomes the head or cutwater of the craft. Two other bundles similar to the first are now lashed outside and slightly above them, and the four form the bottom. Projecting gunwales are now formed of two additional bundles, which are placed over the sightly outward of the last; the inner hollow is filled with the refuse stalk, with a pole placed lengthwise to give it strength, the vessel page 49is complete. Paddles have then to be cut and a mast with a blanket sail may be rigged if the wind is fair.

"Our raft, or moki – could be carried by the four of us. With our weight upon it of some 700 pounds it floated with its upper surface about an inch above the water. It was sufficiently strong to rise over a considerable swell without working loose and might be paddled at the rate of about two miles an hour.

"22nd: About noon the state of the river permitted our crossing, and, carrying the raft down the bank, we soon had it launched, and paddled away briskly for the opposite shore. The flax stalk is, however, of an absorbent nature, and before we had far passed the middle of the stream we found, by the decreasing buoyancy of the craft, that it was necessary to throw overboard the dog. This being done and not lightening her sufficiently, I followed into the water and swam the remainder of the distance; we all accomplished the passage of this large river safely and with the provisions and clothes dry and in good order."

– "Early Travellers in New Zealand", Edited by Nancy M. Taylor.

When Brunner and four natives set out on the mammoth journey of 1846–8 along the Buller River and on to Paringa, he used a more primitive form of raft to cross the flooded Buller River. They had difficulty in finding material for a raft but constructed a small one.

Feb. 18th 1847: "Placed our kits of provisions on raft, and again crossed the river, and proceeded onwards. Fine day. In order to cross the river we had to resort to a new method. The fresh prevented us from fording, and we could not find enough timber for a raft to carry us, and the river runs too rapidly to admit of rafts re-crossing, so we made a small one on which we placed all our clothes, etc. The two fastest swimmers attached a small flax line to the raft, and commenced swimming across; the remaining three swam behind, pushing the raft forward with one hand. For this method you must choose a reach of at least a mile long to cross the Buller when swollen."

– Early Travellers in New Zealand", Edited by Nancy M. Taylor.

There were times when crossing by moki or by canoe was not so fortunate. It was quite usual in the early days for a hotel proprietor to be required to ferry passengers across a river as part of a condition of his licence. This incident recorded by Charles L. Money occurred in the early sixties.

"My mate and I had arrived one afternoon on the south bank of the Buller and hoisted an old pair of trousers on the Maori flagstaff, as a signal for the canoe to come over for us from the township. It was during the vernal equinox and there was a high spring tide. There had been a vast amount of rain falling for some days so that the river was higher than I had yet seen it. A perfect hurricane was blowing in from the sea, bringing the tide, which was already near its full, far up from the swollen waters of the river. While we were waiting we heard a 'coing' to our left, in the direction from which we had originally come from the Grey River, and presently a number of men appeared coming towards us in twos and threes; one with no trousers, another with only a shirt and trousers and all more or less deficient as to wardrobe. They proved to be the passengers and crew of the 'Gypsy', a small vessel that had for some time been running between Nelson and the Buller River, and which had just been wrecked a few miles to the south. They soon joined us, and as we all stood waiting on the beach we saw Mr Skete and others launching from the opposite shore the little canoe in which Rowley and I had so often worked. It was a small boat, so that with those already in it there was scarcely room safely for more than two or three, but so anxious were those shipwrecked men to get to the township, that five got into the canoe besides taking some of the baggage they had brought with them. Rowley and I stayed behind with the rest and watched the voyage of the canoe. A heavy sea was running – when half way over, a bigger wave than usual broke into the canoe, but she righted again page 50and went on a lew yards further, when a second wave knocked her clean over and sent all hands into the water. We could see Mr Skete's long body clinging to one end of the canoe, and one or two others doing the same, but the rest we could not distinguish. When we went over a short time afterwards, we found they had all been saved with the exception of two."

– Knocking About in New Zealand" – Charles L. Money.

Chairs

The chair or cage was used extensively, and was not uncommon even forty years ago. Mr Explorer Douglas describes it thus: "… a wire rope along which an iron cage runs backwards and forwards. The trip is decidely interesting, especially to strangers to such primitive appliances. Getting into the cage requires some skill, as it has a nasty habit of starting off when only half the passenger is aboard. Once in he sits down on a sort of gridiron suggestive of roast missionary, and lets go the hook and away he sails along the rope. At this part of the journey a stranger generally breaks out in pleasing smiles but the inhabitant knows better. The gridiron gets slower and finally stops about halfway. Then comes trouble, the wheels refuse to revolve, the ropes cut the hands while hauling on it and the traveller wonders where he would be if the hauling rope broke and left him hanging like a guy over the middle of the river. I have crossed on these wire cages scores of times and with all sorts of people, and in no single instance did the men who put them up – and all government officials in general escape without vigorous expressions being hurled at their names and memories. However primitive those bridges are they are decidedly useful."

– Mr Explorer Douglas", edited by John Pascoe.

The experience of a young boy stayed with him all his life: he went with his father to collect the mail bags, a distance of three miles and across the flooded Buller River. In fine weather they forded the river in the trap but "if it was in flood we used to go further up the river and cross it in a 'chair'. This was a box on wheels, running on wire rope stretched from bank to bank and made fast to a tree or posts sunk into the ground. You pulled yourself back and forth by hauling ropes running through blocks. I remember one time Father putting me in this box, sitting me on top of the mail bags, the river roaring beneath me, pitch dark and raining hard. Father was pulling tightly on the rope from the bank; when the chair was halfway across the wind caused the rope to get tangled. Those few minutes that I spent there, the chair not moving until the ropes became clear again, seemed a lifetime, and the fright I got was stamped on my memory for years. When I had carried the bag of mail to the Post Office and got back with the other, and was safely across the river to the old dog-cart and Father, I was a happy boy indeed."

– From an Unfinished Journal" by George McNee.

Punts

"Before bridges were able to be built over large rivers the ferry punt, working on wire ropes, was the chief means of crossing for horse and vehicle and foot travellers. Some of these punts were large enough to take a coach and four horses, or a small mob of stock, up to about twenty head. They consisted of boat-shaped flat pontoons on floats and a deck of planking, with a strong rail on each side, and a gate or a rope stretched across at each end. The punt was carried on strong wire rope made fast to two stout posts driven into the ground on each side of the river. The sharp-ended pontoons were set at an angle to the current by means of levers, and the force of the stream against these floats carried the punt smoothly across. It was prevented from floating downstream by the wire rope on the upstream side, which held it securely while allowing it to travel along easily. The river crossed, it was berthed at a plank landing alongside the bank; then the floats were trimmed again in the opposite direction for the return passage.

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"One man was sufficient to attend to the punt and collect the fee, which covered the cost of maintaining the ferry. Rivers which were too deep to ford made the punt a necessity on the main routes before bridges were built. The location was important; the punts could not be fixed where the river was very swift; the place was usually where it began to slacken down, as at the place where the Buller River emerged from the gorge on the swampy plain a few miles above Westport."

– Settlers and Pioneers by James Cowan.

Punts were extensively used throughout the northern part of the South Island, the larger ones being those used by coaches travelling to Westport. Many hair-raising tales are told of the coaching days. "A tragedy was miraculously averted at the Nine Mile punt on 10th May 1908 when eleven members of the Howard Verdum Theatrical Company which had played in Westport the previous evening, were proceeding to Greymouth in Newman Brothers' coach. Besides the company and the driver of the coach, Mr Norman Pahl, the puntsman, C. Grooby and J. Askew were also on the punt. The river was in high flood and the passengers stood on the punt which was three-quarters of the way across when the anchor post on the north bank broke away, with the result that one end of the punt dipped into the raging waters. The end gate broke and the terrified horses plunged over. Mr Pahl leaping from his seat as the coach disappeared. Then the post on the other bank gave way, the punt being carried three miles down the river until it grounded at Snag Fall and drifted into shallower water where the passengers, after great difficulty, jumped off and managed to scramble ashore. The punt continued a wild career down the river."

– Yesterdays in Golden Buller" by Ella Matthews.

Despite mishaps and near tragedies punts served a very useful purpose until traffic bridges were built. The reply to a deputation asking for a bridge over the Buller at Lyell was: "The Prime Minister said, 'Costly works of this kind could not possibly be undertaken at present. Where ferries are operating satisfactorily the need for bridges does not present itself."

– From the Lyell Times 7.2.1885).

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Bridges

We tend to think of modern bridges with at least two lanes and on an angle that can be negotiated at eighty kilometres an hour. The first ones were very different. One of the most primitive ones is described by J. H. Lyons: "As a youth I was shown a cliff at least eighty feet high at a place called Maruia, and was told that some adventurous spirits swam the Buller River and from the bush plaited two cables of the karewa or, as we call it the supplejack vine. These they attached at intervals so that one hung a few feet above the other, and on this precarious bridge crossed with their swags, using one as a foothold and leaning across the top one, for several hundred feet, stepping sideways and rising to the incline of the cliffs. But gold was there and they paid for their provisions in unminted gold."

— from Faring South" by J. H. Lyons.

Early bridges were very simply constructed: a tree was felled close to the stream to be crossed and its trunk became the bridge. The photograph shows one of the log bridges, the photographer and the date are unknown, it was probably taken before 1890. The caption on the original reads: "Through the narrow rocky opening in the widest part only 12 feet across, the whole of the Matakitaki River at this point passes surging and bubbling during fair weather, but in floodtime the rocks are submerged and the rough log bridge here represented is swept away and another has to be substituted by the adventurous miners ere they can cross to the opposite bank." At least one tragedy took place here. The river was rising, it was late and the anxious wife sent her son with a lantern to guide his father over the bridge. While he was crossing the bridge was swept away and he was lost in the flood.

Many of the first bridges built were known as "horse bridges". They were along the pack tracks and were used by riders and pack teams but were not wide enough for wheeled traffic; such was the first bridge at the outlet of Lake Rotoroa, built in 1866. All sorts of bridges preceded the modern ones, the bridge with no sides — and a narrow one at that, the ones with loose timbers that made a clatter as one crossed, as one man remarked, "Mother doesn't like these bridges that laugh at you," the ones that were built at an awkward angle to take advantage of a shorter crossing. Are we thankful as we speed along our modern highways for the bridges of today?