Kōrero: Taranaki places

In March 1893 surveyor Joshua Morgan, aged 35, was working in the Tāngarākau Gorge when he became ill, probably with peritonitis. Two of his chainmen walked to get medical help from the nearest doctor, 50 kilometres away – but they were too late, and there was little a doctor could have done. Morgan was buried where he died, on the banks of the river. His grave is now a sobering stop for travellers on the remote, winding ‘Forgotten World Highway’. The bush around the grave has regenerated since this photograph was taken, about 1915.