Seventy Mile Bush

The Seventy Mile Bush was a heavily forested area of New Zealand extending from Wairarapa to Central Hawkes Bay and out to that coast.

On arrival they walked from the surrounding coastal settlements (Wellington, Foxton and Napier) to cut down the forest and clear the land for farming.

Without funds for a return passage they were obliged to remain.

[2] The area encompasses what are now the towns of Norsewood, Dannevirke, Pahiatua and Eketāhuna in the Tararua District and reached right into Hawkes Bay to the outskirts of Takapau and Maraekakaho.

A remnant was saved in 1888, the Mount Bruce Forest Reserve, now the site of the Pūkaha / Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre.