Mt Arthur has its winter coat on

We had a cold snap early in April that saw Wharepapa/Mt Arthur sporting snow for a couple of days, but it quickly went back to being clear of snow. In the last few days, the snow is back and the temperature’s down in a way that suggests the snow is there to stay for the next few months. The Arthur Range and Mt Arthur are named after Captain Arthur Wakefield, the brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Edward Gibbon Wakefield was an important figure in the New Zealand Company, which was a big player in the colonisation of New Zealand. In 1841, Edward recruited Arthur to lead the settlement of Nelson, and by 1843, around 3000 settlers had arrived. But there wasn’t enough land for all those settlers and local Māori were reluctant to sell. Tensions rose when Captain Wakefield tried to claim ownership of land that belonged to Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha. Wakefield claimed he had bought the land off of someone who had bought it from Te Rauparaha, but Te Rauparaha denied ever selling it. A series of bad decisions on the part of Captain Wakefield and the Nelson chief magistrate led to outright conflict with Ngāti Toa. Wakefield, the magistrate, twenty other settlers and at least four Māori died. Governor Robert FitzRoy investigated ‘The Wairau Affray’ and concluded that the colonists had acted illegally because the land had not been sold and the Māori were simply defending what was theirs.