After visiting the west coast of the South Island of NZ, I wanted to learn more about life in the coal and gold mines.
So, instead of delving into a dry and dense textbook on the subject, I decided to read 'The Denninston Rose' by Jenny Patrick. Set in the 1880's, this piece of historic fiction, follows a young girl called Rose who travels with her mother to the vast, damp and dreary Denniston Plateau (near Westport) to find a new life.
However, more interesting for me was the account that Patrick gave of the first miners strike in NZ. This arose from poor working conditions, and the dangers of the job. Trained English miners scorned the 'hacks', claiming that these untrained men put all their lives at stake. Patrick certainly did a good job of describing a hard life up there.
All in all, it was interesting and fulfilled my need to learn more about the West Coast - however, as a story it jumped a bit from here to there and I didn't really engage with it until the last quarter of the book.