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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 5 (September 1, 1933)

Far Down the West Coast

Far Down the West Coast.

After a rest of a few days at the Okarito village—there were only six Maoris living there at the time—the explorer continued southward. There was, he noted, the remains of a very large pa at Okarito, which was resorted to for fishing in the large lagoon and for bird-catching. “That it abounds in eels,” he noted, “I had full proof during my visit here, our diet being nothing else; it was served out in liberal quantities, to dogs as well as Christians, three times a day.”

Brunner trudged down the great desert coast, fording the small streams and making rafts of flax-stalks to cross the larger ones, until he and his Maoris reached Paringa. There he was delayed by an accident which lamed him, and in December he slowly retraced his steps northward to Hokitika and the Mawhera. On December 31, he noted in his diary, that the whole of 1847 he had spent among the Maoris and had never heard a word of English during the year.