Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Paparoa Range is located in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island, running along the coast between the Buller and Grey Rivers. The Inangahua River lies to the east, and the range's highest peak, Mount Uriah, rises to 1525 metres.
Abel Tasman was the first known European to see the Paparoa Range, sighting it on the 13th of December 1642 from two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen. He was commanding a crew of 110 men and believed his ships were off Punakaiki when the mountains came into view.
The Paparoa National Park was established in 1987. It covers part of the Paparoa Range and carries the country's highest level of protection. The Cave Creek disaster occurred within the park in 1995.
Mount Uriah is the highest peak in the Paparoa Range, rising to 1525 metres. Several other summits in the range exceed 1200 metres.
Julius von Haast began the tradition of naming Paparoa Range peaks after scientists, personally choosing names such as Mount Faraday and Mount Davy. Further names were added by others, including the botanist William Trownson, who named Mount Kelvin after the physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.
Trevor Johnston and Kevin Dash, both Grey Valley residents, became the first people to traverse the Paparoa Range from north to south in mid-1986. They later wrote about the journey in a book called Touch the Wilderness.