During this period he painted mainly genre scenes such as The Dutch Funeral[3] (1872, collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery) and the Old Cellist (1887, The Hague, Gemeentemus.

); he also produced some landscapes, for example Snow on the Sand Dunes[4] (1889–90, collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa).

[2] It was during the 1890s that van der Velden discovered Otira Gorge on the West Coast,[1] which provided him with his most successful and enduring subject.

[7]Waterfall in the Otira was shown in art society exhibitions in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, and met with considerable critical acclaim.

[8] Although van der Velden only made two sketching trips to Otira, he returned to the subjects many times, including when living in Wellington in the 1910s.

Little is known of his time in Sydney, although a work painted in Christchurch, Disillusioned (also known as The sorrowful future) was sold to the Art Gallery of New South Wales for £400.

He was buried in an unmarked grave in Waikaraka cemetery; Australia and Melba van der Velden returned to Sydney in 1914.