Thompsons Hut
The place
Thompsons Hut in the Canterbury region, Hokitika/Otira area (West Coast Ross backcountry, South Island, New Zealand), at 696 m elevation, on the western side of the Southern Alps. Continuous New Zealand West Coast cluster (batches 240-378). Privately owned trapping/mustering hut (named after Thompson, a Scottish 1860s pioneer of the West Coast Gold Rush + Ross, a mining town founded in 1863 + the West Coast Gold Rush 1864-1867, 30,000 miners, Hokitika a boomtown of emigrants from California and Australia + the Southern Alps, a 500 km range + heritage of Ngāti Waewae Ngāi Tahu of the West Coast, ancestral monopoly over pounamu greenstone + the Ngāti Waewae Claims Settlement of 2014 before the Waitangi Tribunal + Ross Beach gold rushes of 1867, boomtown fatalism and decline + Peter Marshall, a 1990s West Coast farmer active in New Zealand First politics under Rutherford).
The setting
Canterbury Hokitika/Otira West Coast Ross backcountry South Island NZ 696 m west side of the Southern Alps, continuous cluster batches 240-378, privately owned trapping/mustering hut Thompson Scottish 1860s West Coast pioneer + Ross founded 1863 + WCGR 1864-1867 30,000 miners Hokitika emigrants from California/Australia + Southern Alps 500 km range, Ngāti Waewae Ngāi Tahu West Coast ancestral pounamu greenstone monopoly + Claims Settlement 2014 Waitangi Tribunal + Ross Beach 1867 decline + Peter Marshall 1990s West Coast farmer New Zealand First under Rutherford.
