When Mr Tait was a Forest Service ranger a hermit impersonated him, wearing the uniform and stealing food from his stores.

LONERS IN THE SOUTH ISLAND

Resolution Island

The Otago Witness of 1906 reported a Mr Henry, who lived alone with pets including paradise ducks, weka, seagulls, kakapo and sharks. Photography became one of his hobbies. His home was a three-roomed wooden structure, with several outhouses.

"Bones, metals, stones, birds, plants, fish, books, and an occasional chat with Lady Nicotine make up the sum total of his life," the Otago Witness said. SILVER PEAKS It was a very public secret that Ross Adamson was the man who went bush for about three years in the 1950s.

In March and April 1958 police repeatedly searched the Silver Peaks for a mystery man who had taken food, books, and even a rifle, from nearby hunters' huts.

Adamson, a former furniture shop worker, hid and watched as police searched the cave in which he slept.

When the police left, they admitted the bushman, who they thought left Dunedin more than three years before, would be found only when he wanted to be.

Mr Adamson, who had only one lung after a childhood illness, was caught at Whare Flat three weeks later by off-duty constables on a shooting trip.

He was convicted of theft.

Mt Herbert

Gerald Cover lived on a mountain top near Karamea for six years, waiting for the world to end. He lived in the snow and tussock on the West Coast, using "aerial poles" to attract lightning, chicken netting, a car battery and a bed roll.

During his time on the mountain, Mr Cover said God had told him a world holocaust would occur in 2011.

His theory was that God wanted people to go to high places to show separation from a wicked world.

He apparently finally came off the mountain looking for love.

In early 1991 he advertised for a wife to live with him in his mountain home.

His spot on the mountain was a nine-hour tramp from the Karamea store which he visited once every two weeks to get supplies.

Flagstaff

Ben Rudd came to Dunedin as a young man after serving an apprenticeship as a gardener in England. He worked in the field for many years.

About 1890 he bought a 100-acre (40ha) Dunedin farm and laboriously built a one-room house and stone walls, levering the stones into place with a sack tied around his waist.

At first, he sometimes did gardening jobs away from home, but after returning to find walls damaged and animals let loose he became more and more reclusive, remaining on his Flagstaff property except to ride his horse to Kaikorai Valley to shop.

Animals rather than people were his companions - hens, pigs, and especially his intelligent and affectionate horse.

He even got to know the rabbits and gave them names, attacking any rabbit shooters on Flagstaff.

- Otago Daily Times