The First Foxes Island 

Prior to the late 1800’s the Wairau and Opawa rivers would occasionally flood the wairau plains of Marlborough. Fortunately an island area consistently stood above the raging flood waters, providing explorers, herdsman and travelers a dry respite.

              

The infamous Sir William Fox, was a controversial politician, writer and explorer regularly passed over the island to negotiate with the native Maori people and is from whence Foxes Island wines derives its name.

In 1872 after a visit and by then the NZ Premier, Sir William Fox, lent his name to Fox Glacier, located in the Southern Alps on the west coast of the South Island.

       

In 1869 Sir William Fox and his wife Sarah adopted a young Maori boy orphaned from battle. He was christened William Fox Junior whose story was later penned by Peter Walker in the Fox Boy, the Story of an Abducted Child.

In his adult life, Fox Junior embraced his Maori roots thru teaching and law and remembered Sarah Fox with great affection. Like the young Maori boy, the FOX by John Belsham wines represent another distinguished chapter in the Foxes Island legacy.