Former builder Micheal Robinson (72), a Queenstowner since 1953, launched his historical epic Campbell's Creek fittingly among the displays of the Lakes District Museum with friends and family late last month.
''The story starts off in Scotland during the land clearances of the Highlands,'' Mr Robinson said.
''James McKinnon, with his family, thinks he's going to Canada, but sculduggery leads them to New Zealand.
''The children are schooled in Dunedin until McKinnon hears of the gold rush and takes off.''
The creek of the book's name is a real place on the Old Man Range, south of Alexandra. What happened there among the gold-miners during the deadly snowfall of 1863 is a dramatic cornerstone.
A life-long avid reader, he overcame childhood dyslexia and put pen to paper in 1957 with his debut The Dark Side of Aoraki, a murder and romance he rewrote three times over the years, until the gold rush captured his imagination.
Fellow members of the Queenstown Writers' Group encouraged his work on the manuscript and its publication as a paperback, complete with an atmospheric photograph by Jo Boyd for the cover.
''I hope people take from it a bit of history, a bit of adventure and a lot of entertainment,'' Mr Robinson said.
• Campbell's Creek is now available to buy from the museum in Arrowtown, Paper Plus at Queenstown Airport and as an e-book.
