Extra:

It's interesting to note that, while in Milford, I happened to read up on the current projects the Department of Conservation are involved in, one of them being the gifting back of traditional Maori owned land across the majority of the South Island. This land was taken by the crown and there has been an ongoing court investigation for many decades into the legitimacy of this changing of hands, from Maori to British farmers, the outcome of which has been that the land was, in fact, unlawfully taken and it should be returned to its original owners, the Maori Ngai Tahu tribe. There are similar disputes taking place across New Zealand today. It stems back to the misunderstandings of land ownership and title caused by the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), from English into Maori. When the British colonists wanted their newly settled country of New Zealand to become an official Crown colony of the British empire, they drew up a Treaty to be signed by 50+ Maori chieftains and members of the British consulate. This Treaty indicated that New Zealand would henceforth become a country under the crown and therefore, although the Maori citizens could retain ownership of their land if they so choose, any selling of that land was to be done only to the crown, in other words compulsory purchasing. The land would then become crown land and all rights would be transferred to the new landowner. However, when the document was hastily translated in Maori, the essential wording describing ownership was mis-represented and in the Maori version, land that was bought by the crown would still retain its overall governorship to the Maori who owned it, more like a rental scheme. In their eyes, the Maori were rightful owners of the land on which they'd lived and tended for generations and these newcomers were still inferior to their populations and caused no real threat of take over. Which brings me back to the signing over of most of the South Island back to the Ngai Tahu tribe. You see, the Maori system of land ownership was worlds away from the British one at that time. Maori land ownership was attained by the usage of the land, growing or hunting on it and age old understandings between tribes members, so there may have been no particular boundary lines even. Therefore, when the British surveyors came in, measuring up the land and giving it value, the Maori were tricked into giving up their land due to false dealings and exchanges with the British. Without a valid form of currency the Maori were vulnerable to being unjustly rewarded for the purchase of their land.
This is why the Department of Conservation has seen fit to return land to the Ngai Tahu tribe, allotting them a partnership role in the continuing conservation of it and areas where they are free to use the land as they once did, particularly traditional fishing. Traditional Maori names have been re-introduced, which is why Mount Cook is now precursed by it's original Maori name of Aoraki (Sky piercer).