The Huxley River is in the South Island of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It feeds into the

Hopkins River The Hopkins River, a perennial river of the Glenelg Hopkins catchment, is located in the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Course and features The Hopkins River rises below Telegraph Hill near , and flows generally south, joined by twe ...

which in turn feeds into

Lake Ōhau Lake Ōhau is a lake in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island of New Zealand. The Hopkins and Dobson rivers fed into the northern end of Lake Ōhau. These rivers have their headwaters in the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana. The lake' ...

History

The first Pākeha to explore the valley was

Julius Von Haast Sir Johann Franz Julius von Haast (1 May 1822 – 16 August 1887) was a German-born New Zealand explorer, geologist, and founder of the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch. Early life Johann Franz Julius Haast was born on 1 May 1822 in Bo ...

. The valley was named after the biologist

Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The stori ...

. The Huxley valley previously had the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name Tairau, meaning 'a stake or peg'. The northern branch of the valley also has Brodrick pass, previously named Te Tarahaka, meaning ‘a thief who steals without qualms or care for the thoughts of others’. This pass was incredibly important for traversing the South Island, and was in heavy use in the old days, due to the fact that it is a grade 1 ascent from both the Landsborough side and the Huxley side.

References

External links

Department of Conservation
- Mackenzie Basin tramping tracks Rivers of Canterbury, New Zealand Rivers of New Zealand {{CanterburyNZ-river-stub