In 1842 James Holdaway arrived in Nelson, and by 1853 at only 17 years of age he was working in Marlborough. One of his many jobs was driving a bullock dray carrying wool from the Awatere Valley to the Wairau Bar. In 1864 he purchased land in Dillons Point on the lower Wairau Plains which he named Lowlands. Now his descendants grow Sauvignon Blanc grapes on this land.
