Alexander (Wee Sandy) had arrived back from Scotland about May 1859 with his father Ewen, brother Angus and sister Margaret Jean and they had gone up to the Cameron enclave at Penola (Australia), just in time to catch up with Donald on his sheep buying expedition.
Donald chartered the Peregrine Oliver, a full-rigged barque, commanded by Captain Rippon, to take the sheep across to the Bluff, in two trips.
The sheep were dipped and allowed to dry at Limestone Ridge for 10 days before they were driven to Robe.
The first flock were boarded at Robe, the town at Guichen Bay, South Australia, which had become second only to Port Adelaide as an international sea port.
It was the nearest port to Alexander Cameron's property, Limestone Ridge.
They sailed on June 21, 1859, and although the weather remained calm for their voyage across the Tasman Sea to Bluff, a considerable number of the sheep died of suffocation in the hold of the ship, probably due to the fumes from their dipping having not fully dispersed during the holding period.
The active ingredients in sheep dip were arsenic, tobacco, sulphur and soda. They arrived at the Bluff on July 5 and of the 2060 loaded only 765 live sheep were unloaded at Bluff.
Accompanying Donald on the voyage were his brothers Sandy, Angus and John, as well as Angus Macdonald. One of the other passengers on the ship was Donald Hay, who was coming to New Zealand to look for sheep country.
Two horses and six bullocks were also shipped without loss. A year's stores to sustain them were also unloaded. These survivors were ferried across the harbour to Te Wais Point for a three-month quarantine period.
A camp was established with two 12 feet by 10 feet tents about a mile inland from the shore. It had to be inland as the dogs were kept busy stopping the cattle from drinking the sea water, which they had never seen.
Donald's brother Sandy remained in charge of this camp and sheep, awaiting the arrival of the second shipment.
Surveyors were busy to the west of their camp cutting their way through the scrub at Greenhills to form the track from Bluff to Invercargill.
Across the estuary at Bluff, the only real building was the hotel of "Surely, Surely Macdonald." Donald paid 14/- a sheep and paid the shipping company £1100 for the two voyages.
The total cost of buying and shipping his sheep and other animals across the Tasman came to £4,012, which was paid for in cash as £1,500 by Donald Cameron, £200 by Angus Macdonald and £2,312 by Angus Cameron, while Uncle Alex also held a loan interest in the venture. According to his notebook, Donald sold his brother Angus various essential supplies on June 20, 1859.
Angus purchased on account, one pair of boots at £1/2/-, one pair of trousers at 9/-, a blue shirt at 3/6 and half a pound of tobacco for 2/-. John Cameron was similarly kitted out on the same day, also buying a felt hat for 6/-.
He also purchased a pair of canvas trousers for 5/- on July 11 and a monkey jacket in September 1859 for £1/10/-. John repaid Donald Cameron £1 of this debt in cash at Riverton on September 27 and the remaining 10/- on 3 October, also at Riverton.
Angus returned to Australia for a second shipment of sheep, which departed from Guichen Bay with 1516 sheep, six bullocks and five horses.
Only 494 sheep and five bullocks were unloaded on August 19. From their original purchase of 3592 sheep in South Australia, only 1259 were landed safely at Bluff, but more losses were to come.
While the sheep were in quarantine, Donald Cameron and fellow passenger on the S. S. Peregrine Oliver, Donald Hay, set out for Glenquoich and a further exploration of the mountains to the east of Lake Wakatipu.
In the winter of July 1859 they crossed the Hector Mountains and further explored the Staircase and Nokomai country.
When they had completed this winter ramble, Donald Cameron returned to Invercargill to meet up with his quarantined sheep while Donald Hay proceeded on to Riverton.
At this small port, Hay bought a pony, saddle and bridle, gun, ammunition, provisions, a tomahawk, a quart pot, a calico oil cloth and a single blanket. He then returned to Glenquoich and the south end of Lake Wakatipu.
He had heard that a previous party had left a moki (a Maori canoe of bound reeds) there and to his joy he discovered it hidden in some bushes.
He proceeded to enlarge and strengthen it with dried sticks from the local flax bushes, cut some oars and installed two forked sticks into the side of the moki to give him some rowlocks, the Maori owners not using oars.
It was August, still winter in the mountain valleys by anyone's standard, when he left his pony with his friend William Cameron and set out on his lonely voyage of discovery.
With William an interested spectator, he put all his provisions into his little vessel and saying farewell, paddled up the west side of the lake, dwarfed by the towering mountains above. At the end of his first day he beached his moki at Halfway Bay and managed to shoot a Maori hen (weka), which he reported as very savoury.
The next morning he crossed to the other side of the lake, probably rather nervously, in his little moki. When conditions allowed he used his single blanket as a sail to assist his progress.
On the eastern side he discovered a small cave with three sticks tied in flax, which indicated he wasn't the first man to find shelter in the cave. Long icicles were hanging from the rocks; it was still winter.
Paddling along the eastern shore of the lake, he eventually came to Frankton Arm and found the start of the Kawarau River, which drains the lake. After pulling his vessel up onto a beach by this lake exit, he lit a fire from dry driftwood and camped for the night.
That night a thunderstorm in the basin sent great rolling peals of thunder echoing around the snow-clad mountains, of which he reported later, "It was awe-inspiring, but I was quite reconciled to my fate, what ever it might be, so long as I used all caution within my power under the circumstances to preserve my life."
The next day he left the shelter of Frankton Arm and paddled back across the lake until he rounded the point at Hidden Island.
As the wind was favourable he shipped his oars and raised his flimsy sail and drifted along the shore. Night overtook him and a storm put him in danger of being dashed onto the rocky shore.
By using a long pole he had brought with him, perhaps his mast, he was just able to fend off the surge trying to dash him onto the rocks, where he would have surely drowned. The next day he found himself at a beautiful protected beach, now Beach Bay, Walter Peak Station.
He managed to pull his waterlogged craft up the beach enough to allow it to drain and dry out a little.
While it dried out for the day, he climbed the Afton Hill to get a perspective view of the lake. From this vantage point he had a view up the lake to its head at Kinlock. His further wandering took him west to the Von River, which he explored up stream.
As he couldn't safely cross such a rapid and turbulent stream, he then followed it downstream to the lake, where he stripped off his clothes and with them tied in a bundle on his shoulders, attempted to cross the Von.
The water was deeper than he expected and the water came over his back, nearly sweeping his clothes away. Had that happened he would have died of hypothermia in a very short time.
Giving up the northward exploration, he returned to his moki and finding it had drained sufficiently, he re-launched it and sailed out onto the lake again.
This voyage took him back east, down to the small island on the corner of the point, from where he crossed the lake again and came ashore at Sunshine Bay, just west of Queenstown.
After beaching his moki away from the wash, he went inland and discovered the lake, which bears his name, near Arrowtown.
After he had visited William Cameron at Glenquoich to rebuild his strength, Donald Hay returned to Riverton and then went on to the Land Office in Dunedin to register his interest in the area he had just explored.
Sadly, it had already been registered by a speculator who worked in the office. Donald made him an offer, which was declined and so after being the first European man to explore the lake from the water in his hazardous wee craft, he left New Zealand and returned to Victoria.
After only four months in New Zealand he left our shores taking his courage and obvious pioneering spirit with him.
The journey for the Cameron clan and their sheep up-country, commenced at the end of October 1859.
The first stage was from the camp at Te Wais Point to Mokomoko through scrub and swamps. Donald had brought an Aborigine called Black Jack (John Godfrey) over with him, as Jacky was a very good stock handler.
To Jacky fell the unenviable task of driving the bullocks and dray through the swamps.
The swamps and boggy creeks were matched by the imprisoning manuka stands and the men made very hard work of driving the bullock wagons with their supplies through it all.
The sheep did not fare so well either and a lot of them were lost on this section of the journey.
At Mokomoko the sheep were transported across the half-mile of New River (Oreti) by Wests ferry; Mr West also running the accommodation house at this natural impediment to progress. 758 sheep were transported across on October 30, 1859 and 89 on November 16 with some local Maoris giving a welcome hand.
In addition, the horses, bullocks, drays, tents, stores and the remainder of the flock were also floated across and a temporary camp put up among the sandhills near the Maori village.
The sandhills at the western side of the New River mouth were a noticeable feature of the landscape in 1859, covered with rough vegetation, grass and toi-tois.
The next stage was a two-day drive along the beach at low tide to Riverton, where the sheep were placed on the Maori reserve.
While here, a close watch was kept on the sheep, as the Maori dogs were useless at working sheep but became quite adept at worrying them.
After a short stay, they moved on to Gropers Bush, where Donald had acquired 300 acres and had built some accommodation. Gropers Bush is halfway between Riverton and Otautau. When they arrived at this staging point, the sheep and the men rested for a fortnight.
When they recommenced their slow journey, the route took them northwards up to Otautau, making about three miles a day.
There was only one building here in 1859, the accommodation house of Mr Dodds but there was one shepherd looking after some sheep.
As tutu was bad in the area and with the risk of losing more sheep to this poisonous plant, they only stayed one night and moved on up the Aparima Valley to Mossburn.
Although the land of the Five Rivers Plain had all been taken up, humans were few and far between, but at Mossburn they found a solitary stockman living in a small hut.
Above this flat and scenic vale, the mountains gather in to guard the pass that leads through to Lake Wakatipu, a journey that took the settlers a week to reach their immediate destination, Glenquoich Station.
It was much bigger in those days, stretching far north to what is now Fairlight, and it was being run by Robert Cameron for his uncle, William Cameron.
