Arawata Bill

This story is a journey through the Otago and Westland landscapes traversed by William O’Leary known as “Arawata Bill” using the iconic poems of Denis Glover.

A landscape which is seldom visited.  So awesome and intimidating that few would survive there.  This isolated beautiful country was the home to Arawata Bill for months at a time.

Truly one of New Zealands legends.

This programme is a tribute both to Bill, as the personification of the romantic old prospector and to Denis Glover who through his poems has so ably captured the essence of the subject and his habitat as both a legendary person and an historic icon.