Haast begins West Coast expedition

Canterbury Provincial Geologist Julius von Haast led an exploratory expedition in search of an overland route from the east to the west coast of the South Island. The expedition found a suitable route from the upper Makarora River.

Haast’s expedition also discovered the extent of the Grey River coalfields and found traces of gold in West Coast rivers. Although the prospector Charles Cameron is credited with ‘discovering’ the pass, Haast was rewarded by having it named after him. He and his expedition reached the pass on 23 January. After crossing it they travelled down the banks of the river that would also be named after him, reaching the coast on 20 February.

The European exploration of the New Zealand interior was a long process. The surveying of inland areas was fundamental to European settlement, defining the boundaries of ownership and identifying resources, usable land and access routes.

Surveying and exploration were part of the British colonial vision to claim, tame and name the landscape. European explorers and surveyors viewed the landscape as empty and available. They travelled around New Zealand ‘discovering’ territory that had been known to Māori for generations, and bestowing familiar place names from Britain and Europe on it.

As settlements became more established, the attention of surveyor-explorers turned increasingly to the identification of hinterlands and transport routes. The European discovery of transalpine routes in the 1850s and 1860s opened up new areas for settlement. In the South Island, the search for more land for sheep runs was one of the primary drivers for exploration.

As the pursuit of gold moved from Otago to the West Coast in the early 1860s, many sought new passages through the seemingly impassable gorges and impenetrable bush of the region.

Between the late 1830s and the 1870s, scientists such as Haast, Ernst Dieffenbach and Ferdinand von Hochstetter covered much of the country, mapping its geology. As Canterbury Provincial Geologist from 1861, Haast led a number of comprehensive surveys of the province, sprinkling Germanic names over the landscape as he went.