We are all travellers

Everyone in this island country is a traveller or a descendant of one. Before humans first discovered Aotearoa the mountains of the Southern Alps existed and have changed little in the last few thousand years. The plains around them and the spaces suitable for grazing livestock have been shaped recently by human activity, but when Butler travelled into the mountains they would have looked much as they do today. It's easy to see how they would inspire thoughts of mythical and sacred worlds.