Trees with a story to tell at Deep Cove

The Southland tree with the largest girth is possibly a Silver beech tree in Fiordland.

This example near the Mica Burn on the road in to Deep Cove has a girth of about 12m although the trunk is so fissured and laden with epiphytes it is hard to measure. It could be approaching 1000-years-old.

The tallest native trees are kahikatea but the largest in Fiordland are likely to be red beech.

The best place to see these are on the Lake Gunn Nature Walk. Beech is one of the few native trees still harvested. It grows relatively quickly and cleared areas of forest regenerate rapidly.

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Sharing a name but little else

The SS Kākāpō was a Union Steamship Company vessel whose only link with Southland lies in the fact that almost the entire kākāpō population of 252 lives in Southland.

She never actually reached New Zealand either. The SS Kākāpō was a new vessel, having been built in Britain in 1898 and named Clarence, then sold to the USSCo for £21,000 in 1900.

On her delivery voyage she was stranded on a beach at Capetown with the crew being able to wade ashore, and, despite efforts to remove her, she is still there today, not exactly in mint condition but a bit of a tourist attraction.

The stranding was attributed to the negligence of the captain and officers.

The ship was Captain Nicolaysen’s first command and he was so mortified that he apparently refused to leave the stranded ship and lived aboard for three years.

The second Kākāpō was purchased by the company the following year, to be replaced by a third Kākāpō in 1936.

Tin rush

New Zealand’s only tin rush took place at Port Pegasus on Rakiura in 1888.

There had been gold mining there but samples were assayed and the heavy mineral contaminant amongst the flakes of gold proved to be tin ore.

Tin is valuable in preventing the corrosion of other metals and as a component of bronze, solder and pewter.

There was no other New Zealand source. Miners rushed to Pegasus and numerous claims were pegged out.

Shops and accommodation were provided as well as a shipping service.

In the optimistic days companies formed and many invested heavily with the prospect of a “mother lode” being discovered any day.

Alas, although there was tin there it was difficult to extract and not in large quantities.

The rush petered out and the 240 hopeful miners found other things to do, with most of them probably returning to gold mining.