south in the 1930s. This intrepid salesmen travelling in a small van loaded with merchandise, brought the pleasure of shopping to women living in remote areas. On a visit to Okarito in these years, as part of his South Westland round, Keith, riding on horseback, took samples of the goods on offer down to the dredge at the 5-mile. That’s real customer service.
Because of land being made available in the Cook area, road construction between Gillespie’s Beach and the Cook valley was commenced in 1886 by contract gangs from Ross to replace the narrow rough track through the bush. The road was gravelled and sufficiently widened to enable horses and pack-horses to travel along. It wasn’t improved until the 1930s, no doubt as a result of the advent of the motorcar. There were complaints at the time that because the tendering conditions for road construction required a deposit of Twenty Pounds, this made it difficult for ordinary working men to compete for tenders.
The above is the setting for the next part of our story.
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