Sometimes it just takes the right person reviewing something at the right time to find the correct answers. This page serves to gather many resources related to either chonicling or solving any one of the world's unsolved mysteries and folkloric events. I am personally less interested in true crime, but links for it can be found on the right anyway. Mostly gonna stick to historical and other random mysteries that could be solved with genealogical DNA analysis.

Hochstetter - Hokitika

Section created and last updated 26 April 2023. Sorry if conspiracy theorists pick this up and try to run an argument with it.

There is an idea found in several 19th century newspapers (this one especially from February 1888) that Hokitika is a corrupted form of 'Hochstetter' after Dr Ferdinand Von Hochstetter who explored the region 'prior to 1860', as reported by a member of his party (which is admittedly bizarre). It is important to note that like Greymouth and Westport, Hokitika is not necessarily an original settlement location but rather it was named after that which the river was already known. Like Greymouth is supposedly 'Māwhera', and Westport is supposedly 'Kawatiri'; Hokitika, Maruia, Ahaura, Arahura, Karamea, and Īnangahua as well were also the names of the rivers (ngā awa) before they were the settlements. These were sold under the 1860 Arahura Deed.

Hokitika, the town as it is known today, was settled in 1864. A reserve in the 1860 Arahura Deed is listed as 'No. 24 Hokitika Native Reserve'. The history typically given for Hokitika's naming is given as 'returning, direct', or 'return in a straight line', though many who are unfamiliar with the West Coast might initially think this is an allusion to Macruronus novaezelandiae. Regardless, it is thought to refer to a time of warfare between the resident Kāti Wairaki and newcomers Kāi Tahu, wherein Hikatūtae took the heads of his fallen comrades and swam 'the right way' to go back to Canterbury over Nōti Raureka. It should be noted, Nōti Raureka's closest river is the Arahura rather than the Hokitika. This etymology made its earliest written appearance, as far as I can tell, in 1897. To add to the confusion, some sources say the river's original name is 'Okitika'.

Thomas Brunner, who was the first European to investigate this far south of the modern West Coast in 1845, wrote of no place name that sounded anything remotely like 'Okitika', 'Okatika', or 'Hokitika'. The closest, perhaps, is 'Ohatura'. What he did write of was: Te Wahi Pounamu or Te Wai Pounamu, Arahura, Karawea (Karamea?), Kaua tiri (Kawatiri?), Miokihinui (Mokihinui) [2 August 1849], Taramakau, Mawhera, Kaurangi, Waka Tipu, Taitapu, Kararoa (described as the northernmost village in the 'Greenstone Country' and the first along the coast from Taitapu), Pakawau, Toura te Weka, Wanganui [30 August 1849], Te Miko, Punakaike (Punakaiki), Pakeroa, Maukaranui, Mahuera, Hauraki (Aoraki) [28 September 1849], Wairau, Waimea, Waitohi, Wakapoi, Rotoiti, Rotoroa, Otago [ 11 October 1849], Matangi tawa, Pahutani, Potekahua, Tauparikaka, Hohaihai, Wakopei, Awaruatu, Ohatura. [27 October 1849].

It could simply be the case that Brunner had not been near the Hokitika and just had not heard of it while he was at the Arahura, or that he did not write of it for some other reason. If the river really was not called 'Hokitika' at first, then why? Surely it must have had a name, and if so, what was it? Why would the locals honour the name 'Hochstetter' given to it by a foreigner so much as to corrupt it only to change its etymology some 50 years later?