Attracted to gold in New Zealand, John decided to go prospecting in the
South Island, leaving Melbourne for NZ on the steamer "Gothenberg" arriving
in Hokitika in 1865.
John settled in Woodstock on the West Coast, and built the family home at a
town called Woodstock just out of Hokitika. While at the Woodstock Hotel he
met a barmaid by the name of Nora Letitia Furness, eldest child of Robert
and Eliza Furness.
The Furnesses had come to NZ via South Africa and Australia, arriving in NZ
in 1867.
John and Nora married in St Andrews Church, Kanieri on 26 Sep 1871, he was 30
and she 17.
According to records he journeyed a lot of moving around Westland after he was
married, mining. There is a account that he had one of his rifles snatched by
outlaws. He had 10 children, including Thomas, my grandfather, one, Robert,
was killed by pigs at 4, and John jnr died with honour on the battlefields
of France in 1917.
He died in January 1925, and was buried in the Wells family plot in Hokitika
Cemetery.
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