“Wind Lulled From Evening Till Morning…” ~ The Last Month Aboard The Charlotte Jane

“On board the Charlotte Jane…I try to recollect the events of the past five days, which from confusion, sickness and disagreeables of every kind could not be recorded at the time…”Edward Ward – 12th September 1850.The Charlotte Jane had sailed out of Plymouth on the 7th September 1850. Edward starts his journal off on the …

Harry Head (? – 1924)

Hickory Bay is the most remote bays on Banks Peninsula. It was once covered in thick forest and bush with the beach sitting between two vertical, unfriendly cliff faces. The Maori called it Waikerikikari (The Bay of Angry Waters) and unlike the other bays, the Maori never settled there. As the Europeans came across it, …

The Ward Brothers

Maybe it had been the tedious bumpy ROADLESS journey over the sea of tussock – from Hawkins (a stone’s throw from Darfield) to Rolleston – that made the farmhand lower the new plough down to harvesting position before he towed it back to Bangor in which he worked. He had been sent out hours before …

The Red Rocks Of Te Ngarara – Port Levy

During the late 1820’s, not many European ships sailed into Ōhinehou (Lyttelton Harbour) and those that did carried the rough characters that were the whalers, sealers and merchants. One of these merchant ships was from the Australian firm of Cooper and Levey and its Captain was William B. Rhodes. At the time, the most populated …

Good Pioneer Friends

The names of Rhodes and Barker, for Canterbury historians and alike, represent a delicious smorgasbord of old photos, journals, homesteads, memorials and real-life colourful characters who made the swamps and Toi Toi of Canterbury their home. The Rhodes Brothers – William, George and Robert – had settled on Banks Peninsula – from Akaroa in the …

Banks Peninsula Came Under The Care Of The C.C.C – 6th March 2006

On 6th March 2006, Banks Peninsula came under the care of the C.C.C. Due to the abundance of food provided by the forests, rivers, sea and skies, Banks Peninsula was known to the Maori as Te Pataka o Rakaihautu – the storehouse of Rakaihautu [Chief of Uruao]. Formed between eight and eleven million years ago, …