Gold was discovered in Central Otago in 1862 in the gorge between Clyde and Cromwell. The search quickly spread across the region. Its hills and rivers yielded immense riches. Much has been written about these Dunstan goldfields, but the story has never been told - that of the Nevis Valley. Many people have little or no knowledge of the Nevis despite its importance to the New Zealand gold mining history.

The Nevis, an isolated sub alpine valley was the most brutal of the Dunstan goldfields yet men, women and children endured its unrelenting hardships in the search of gold.

This book combines the writings of Gavine Campbell, who first went to the Nevis as a young school teacher in 1927 and stories of people who braved the challenges the Nevis threw at them. Gavine married Nevis-born miner Ian McLean. They and their children were the last family to mine in the Nevis Valley.