Lost in the Hollyford Valley
The story of Donald Keith - the Historic Grave by the river.
He was a shepherd up in the mountains above the head of Lake Wakatipu, originally from the island of Bute in Scotland. In the April he met up with a Mr Dewar, postman from Queenstown who was to deliver some mail to Martins Bay. They headed over into the Hollyford Valley from Kinloch, taking 4 days to get that far. However on the fifth day it started raining, like only Fiordland can, and they were held up at the Hidden Falls River (no swing bridge back then) due to the high water levels. Things went from bad to worse at that point, Donald's gun broke and his dogs ate the last of their food. They decided to go back up onto the tops as the rivers & creeks would be narrower and easier to cross. However the weather was against them and after strugglling through the bush and above the bushline for several days Donald came down with hypothermia. Mr Dewar then decided the valley was the best option after all and carried Donald back down into the Hollyford Valley and into the shelter of the bush. As luck would have it a passing local had just built a 'footer' or wee cairn containing food supplies for his return journey. The two travellers were then discovered by a couple of surveyors from Otago University who managed to catch up with the local, the party then being discovered by members of the search party that had been sent out to find Mr Dewar - they'd been gone 16 days by this stage. As Mr Dewar was fit enough to travel he was taken back to Queenstown via Te Anau while it was decided tolet Donald recover from his illness before taking him down to Martins Bay and back to civilisation that way. Unfortunately Donald didn't manage to pull through and succumbed to his illness a week or so later. He was buried at the site of the footer, where the two had made camp in such desperate circumstances. Mr Dewar was said to be 'much saddened' when he heard the news of Donald Keith's death.
Sorry it's such a long story - it's an interesting piece of history and shows just what hardships our early pioneers had to endure at times. And they certainly don't make Posties like they used to!
Lost in the Hollyford Valley
The story of Donald Keith - the Historic Grave by the river.
He was a shepherd up in the mountains above the head of Lake Wakatipu, originally from the island of Bute in Scotland. In the April he met up with a Mr Dewar, postman from Queenstown who was to deliver some mail to Martins Bay. They headed over into the Hollyford Valley from Kinloch, taking 4 days to get that far. However on the fifth day it started raining, like only Fiordland can, and they were held up at the Hidden Falls River (no swing bridge back then) due to the high water levels. Things went from bad to worse at that point, Donald's gun broke and his dogs ate the last of their food. They decided to go back up onto the tops as the rivers & creeks would be narrower and easier to cross. However the weather was against them and after strugglling through the bush and above the bushline for several days Donald came down with hypothermia. Mr Dewar then decided the valley was the best option after all and carried Donald back down into the Hollyford Valley and into the shelter of the bush. As luck would have it a passing local had just built a 'footer' or wee cairn containing food supplies for his return journey. The two travellers were then discovered by a couple of surveyors from Otago University who managed to catch up with the local, the party then being discovered by members of the search party that had been sent out to find Mr Dewar - they'd been gone 16 days by this stage. As Mr Dewar was fit enough to travel he was taken back to Queenstown via Te Anau while it was decided tolet Donald recover from his illness before taking him down to Martins Bay and back to civilisation that way. Unfortunately Donald didn't manage to pull through and succumbed to his illness a week or so later. He was buried at the site of the footer, where the two had made camp in such desperate circumstances. Mr Dewar was said to be 'much saddened' when he heard the news of Donald Keith's death.
Sorry it's such a long story - it's an interesting piece of history and shows just what hardships our early pioneers had to endure at times. And they certainly don't make Posties like they used to!