TALE OF EARLY OTAGO

Lake County Mail, Issue 22, 22 October 1947, Page 5

TALE OF EARLY OTAGO

“ Pioneers of Martin’s Bay ” “ Pioneers of Martin’s Bay ” is an extraordinary little work dealing with a wild and little-known region of the West Coast. The story is, in the main, the personal narrative of Airs Peter Mackenzie of Queenstown, formerly Alice AlcKenzie, and is one of the few pioneer stories written solely by a woman. Martin’s Bay is about 200 miles south of Hokitika and about 15 miles north of Milford Sound. Lake McKerrow extends to within two miles of it and is fed by the Holly ford River. The weirdly beautiful Lake Alabaster is close and the area is typical of the scenic wonders of the W r est Coast Sounds. The township of Jamestown was laid out on the banks of Lake McKerrow, one of its first sections being taken up by William Henry Homer. The site remains part of the lovely wilderness. Tiie author’s father was a journalist who fivst went to the Jackson’s Bay settlement about, 150 miles south "of Hokitika. Stories of adventure and almost incredible hardships follow' fast, as the indomitable couple fight to get a stake in this wild country. There is an account of Airs Alackenzie’s first trip through the Hollyford Valley in 1880. “ I was then 13 years of age and my father took me through to Queenstown to “put me to school. I went to hospital instead. There was still no track, though it had been promised 15 years earlier, but only. a blazed trail . . • The rain fell nearly every day,” and, she adds, “We w T ere 10 days instead of a week on the journey.” She remembers that on arrival after daik in Queenstown “ I heard a band playing and wondered what the strange noise was,”