Waimakariri: An Illustrated History By Robert Logan.

Publisher : Phillips & King Publishers, 2008.

Excellent near new hardback with jacket. No inscriptions. Jacket has some light shelfwear. 188 pages, illustrated.

When the first European colonists reached the top of the Bridle Path above Lyttelton they saw, on the far side of the Canterbury Plains, a range of mountains, snow-covered in winter and higher than any they had known in Britain. From the tussock uplands, soaring peaks, deep valleys and rugged gorges of these Southern Alps came the mighty braided river Maori called Waimakariri, but the new settlers called, for a short time, the Courtenay. It would dominate the lives of many, it was a barrier to travel and, as they soon learned, its turbulent spring and summer floods were a threat to the city of Christchurch. But the Waimakariri valley also provided a gateway to the West Coast, via first the road built to tap the golden riches on the other side of the alps and later the famous Midland railway; both were engineering marvels of their time. From the peaks of the headwaters, where young mountaineers revelled in climbing and exploration, to the river's mouth, the Waimakariri's story is full of interest, and none has told it better or in more fascinating detail, than the late Robert Logan. The author's special knowledge of the river's upper reaches gave him a unique insight into the early European explorers in the area, and his tireless research uncovered a great deal of previously unpublished material.

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