Digging deep into family history

Lloyd Hook follows in the footsteps of his ancestors, who set out to make their fortune on New Zealand’s wild West Coast in the gold rush of the 1860s

When the star-crossed prospectors featured in the novel The Luminaries set out in search of gold on New Zealand’s West Coast, they took their lives in their hands. Many did not survive the perilous trek across the newly forged passes through the Southern Alps – and if they did, the effort so weakened them that it would be weeks before they were strong enough to lift a pick. The journey could take months.

For my family and me, on a trip to revisit New Zealand’s long-forgotten goldfields, where our ancestors lived their lives and met their death, the journey would take years.

We had first attempted to reach Hokitika, the setting for Eleanor Catton’s Man Booker Prize-winning gold rush-era novel, in 2012. Unluckily, we were hit by one of the West Coast’s notorious “weather bombs”, a torrential downpour that washed out a bridge on the only road north, leaving us marooned in Fox Glacier – a town that on that day had no electricity, no beer and rainclouds slung so low that there wasn’t even a view of the eponymous glacier.

But like a digger’s first sight of “the colour”, that alluring initial glimpse of the South Island’s savage and isolated western shores called This is a unique way to explore the length and breadth of New Zealand, a perennial favourite among readers of The Telegraph. Joe Swift, the engaging presenter of Gardeners’ World, will join you on the North Island for visits to some of the region’s spectacular flora. The itinerary continues to many of the showstopping highlights of this picturesque nation – truly a tour to do justice to “the land of the long white cloud”.

Highlights

Visit the Waipoua Kauri Forest Reserve and the Bay of Islands with Joe Swift.

Walk on Mount Cook in the company of the renowned mountaineer Peter Hillary, who used to roam the mountain with his pioneering father, Sir Edmund Hillary.

See many of the wonderful landscapes for which New Zealand is famed, including Milford Sound, Waitomo and Mount Cook.

Explore Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and discover the country’s vibrant cultural life.

Details

Runs from November 27 to December 10 2017.

Costs £4,995 per person, for 19 days, including flights, all tours, accommodation, entrance fees and talks from Joe Swift and Peter Hillary.

To inquire call 03303 333643 or visit telegraph. co.uk/tt-swift.

Left: Lloyd Hook’s great-grandfather, right of picture, at work in the goldfields. Right: Pancake Rocks on the West Coast. Below: an angel sculpture made of driftwood on Hokitika’s black-sand beach