During June Hochstetter and Haast departed for the Coromandel to investigate the goldfields there. Then, in late July 1859, they travelled south by steamer to the Province of Nelson, stopping briefly at New Plymouth and Wellington on the way. After his lecture in Auckland, Hochstetter had received invitations from several other provinces to explore the geological makeup of their regions, but he had already accepted an invitation from the Nelson Provincial Council to inspect the mineral deposits of Nelson Province, which were believed to include gold, coal and copper. Again Haast assisted Hochstetter, and after they discovered moa bones in the Aorere Valley in Golden Bay, Hochstetter left Haast in charge of the dig while he continued with other fieldwork. Over several days, assisted by Christopher Maling of the provincial survey department, Haast extracted several near-complete skeletons of the long-extinct bird. Hochstetter then tasked him with carrying out independent fieldwork in Golden Bay and with investigating the mineral deposits to the east of Nelson. At Shakespeare Bay, near present-day Picton, he correctly predicted gold could be found based on his inspection of the rocks in the area.