West Coast gold rush

Gold was found near the Taramakau River in 1864 by two Māori, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau.

[1] The provincial government decided that a road was to be built between Christchurch and Hokitika over Arthur's Pass, a distance of 156 miles (251 km), and Edward Dobson was put in charge of the project.

Eleanor Catton's novel The Luminaries, which won the 2013 Man Booker Prize, is set in Hokitika during the West Coast Gold Rush.

[4] This setting was partly inspired by Elsie Locke's classic New Zealand children's novel The Runaway Settlers, which also features the gold rush.

[5][6] In Rose Tremains's 2003 novel The Colour, a British couple emigrate to New Zealand and the husband gets swept up in the gold rush.