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.

Author Biography

Dr Scott Hamilton has a PhD in Sociology. His books include The Crisis of Theory, Manchester University Press, 2011; The Stolen Island, Bridget Williams Books, 2016; and two volumes of poetry. Hamilton travels regularly through the Pacific and has written about the artists and cultures of the region for journals like EyeContact, The Spinoff, Landfall, and Overland. Hamilton lives in Auckland and in 2015 Len Brown gave him the inaugural Mayoral Writers Grant. Ghost South Road is the result.