Ghost South Road

Book excerpt: The Great South Road was built in 1862 to carry a British army into the Waikato Kingdom. When the British invaded the Waikato in 1863, soldiers shared the road with Maori refugees from Auckland. Today the eroding earthen walls of forts and pa and military cemeteries remember the road's history. They sit beside the car dealerships and kava bars and pawn shops of South Auckland, the most culturally diverse part of the world's most culturally diverse city. On their journeys up and down the Great South Road, Hamilton, Janman, and Powell have learned how the route's tragic past affects its present, and discovered the ways in which the road connects as well as divides the communities that live alongside it. Ghost South Road features obscure as well as famous figures from New Zealand history and illustrates the epic walk that the author and photographers made along the two hundred kilometre length of the Great South Road.