"[13] The Harriet Armitage made her return voyage to Dunedin in October 1873[14] with what New Zealand newspapers described as "a cargo of China notions"[15] which was "consigned to the principal Chinese firms" in Otago.

[22] In export matters, Choie Sew Hoy was a very enterprising merchant, sending oats to Australia,[23] frozen mutton to Great Britain[24] and scrap metal to China.

"[28] Many farmers, however, found that gathering and selling the fungus, which grows on dead trees in the New Zealand bush, enabled them to weather a financially difficult period.

Large-scale methods such as hydraulic sluicing and quartz processing required large sums of capital for the construction of water races and purchase of crushing machinery.

Dr James Ng's research shows that Choie Sew Hoy was involved as a shareholder or director in at least a dozen gold mining and water-race ventures, from Waitahuna to Skippers.

James Gore, a former Mayor of Dunedin later described how Choie Sew Hoy "called together a few gentlemen" and proposed to them a scheme for working by dredges the well-known Shotover Big Beach.

"[39] Trials were carried out and on 23 January 1889, Mr Beal sent Choie Sew Hoy a telegram that was to trigger the first Otago gold dredging boom.

"Mining is very dull, yet we had a sensation the other week when Mr Sew Hoy's dredge fished up £40 worth of gold in one day,"reported the Southland Times.

"[47] Thus the new company was launched as the Sew Hoy Big Beach Gold Mining Company Ltd. Choie Sew Hoy joined John Blair (a wealthy Dunedin seed merchant) and Peter Duncan (a successful Otago agricultural implement manufacturer) as fellow directors, while James Gore, a former Dunedin Mayor and Member of the House of Representatives (MHR), became chairman.

[48] In a strong publicity campaign, the new company proposed to put larger and better dredges "designed to lift double the amount of stuff" on to its "wonderfully valuable" claim which now covered 260 acres, along five miles of the Shotover River.

[49] The proprietors responded by reducing the nominal capital to £120,000 in 60,000 shares of £2 each, and the Sew Hoy Big Beach Gold Mining Company was successfully floated.

"[50] In defence of the proposal, Choie Sew Hoy wrote, "The gold won by the present company is the result almost altogether from ground supposed to be worked out, both by Europeans and Chinese.

I only wish to add that these results will be far surpassed, and the value of the company, as at present printed, far greater in twelve months than to-day, when we hope to gather the gold with five dredges instead of one.

[61][62] Although returns were steady, costs were also high and by 1897 the directors of the Sew Hoy Big Beach Gold Mining Coy went into voluntary liquidation and sold off the dredges and other equipment.

Before Big Beach was worked out, Sew Hoy and his son Kum Poy had turned their attention to the Nokomai valley (near Parawa) in Southland, where they both registered neighbouring claims in January 1894.

Finding the area also unsuitable for dredging – the gravel layer was over 100 feet deep – the Sew Hoys decided to use large-scale hydraulic sluicing.

Later Kum Poy's son Cyril Sew Hoy (1907-1971) became the manager at the Nokomai workings, thus creating a unique three-generation gold mining dynasty.

[73] The dragline failed because its bucket system proved too heavy, so the company resumed hydraulic sluicing successfully assisted by the rising price of gold in the 1930s.

The Nokomai operation finally had to close down during World War 2, when the New Zealand Government requisitioned the company's electricity generating plant and installed it at the Roaring Meg power station in the Cromwell Gorge.

Choie Kum Yok arrived in Otago in October 1873 on the barque Harriet Armitage, (a ship chartered by Dunedin Chinese merchants including his father).

The Sew Hoy family lived in "Canton Villa," a modest weatherboard house in Cumberland Street, where their general servant enjoyed "liberal wages.

[75] Soon after their arrival in Otago, the Cantonese gold-miners from Poon Yu (Panyu) and Fah Yue (Hua) counties had founded a benevolent society, the Cheong Shing Tong, to care for elderly and needy Chinese, and also to return their bodies to Canton.

When the society began its first mass exhumation of deceased miners' remains in 1883, all the fundraising and administration was run from Choie Sew Hoy's office at his store in Stafford Street, Dunedin.

It was left to his son Kum Poy Sew Hoy (his successor as the president of the Cheong Shing Tong) to continue overseeing the gathering of human remains from 39 graveyards around New Zealand.

[80] During a similar 3-day visit in April 2013, plaques were also erected in Kawarua and Mitimiti to record the gratitude of the Chinese to the Māori who had cared for the remains of their fellow countrymen.

[85] In August 2015, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage put the artifacts – the remains of a saucer, bell, port-hole fitting, ship's engine telegraph and lamp-bracket – into police care and called for public submissions on their future ownership.

On 10 June 2016, Paul James, the Chief Executive of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage stated that the Crown will assume custody of the Ventnor objects to allow for their future care and management.

Liu Sheung Wong's March 2015 proposal to the Far North District Council highlights six key spots on the proposed trail: Te Roroa (plaque and Ventnor Kauri Grove), Signal Station Road, Old Wharf Road (Omapere Beach), Hokianga Museum, Rawene Cemetery and Mitimiti Beach "where there is a beautiful red gateway, a plaque and on outlook to view.

[90] A large mural prominently featuring Choie Sew Hoy is painted on the side of the Crown Hotel building in Dunedin's Exchange area, on the corner of Rattray Street and Broadway.

[91] Toitu Otago Settlers Museum curator and historian Sean Brosnahan was invited to attend, speak and accept some memorabilia from this event.