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The Adventures of a Surveyor in New Zealand

Among the more extraordinary incidents in Rochfort’s Adventures of a Surveyor were his connivance in the downfall of the famous missionary William Colenso, who “lay like a half-tide rock” after his involuntary christening; and the cunning sale of a hole in the ground for £300.0.0.

Rochfort, who arrived in New Zealand in 1852, could only find surveying work at the “bad pay of a stingy government”—£1.0.0 a week for himself, his horse and his travelling expenses at a time when lodgings in Wellington cost £1.4.0 a week.

Later quitting his job and selling his horse because the “bush was too thick to get through” he became the first European to walk cross-country from Rangitikei to the Hawkes Bay, led by a succession of reluctant Maori guides. Rochfort tells of the daily life of a pioneer explorer, bushman, and gold-digger in New Zealand and Australia in a readable and lively style.

Rochfort’s book is extremely rare: this reprint is from one of only two copies recorded in New Zealand.

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