The First Pakehas Around Wellington and Cook Strait 1803 to 1839

The settlers in the New Zealand Company arrived belatedly in 1839, decades after the first foreign visitors to Port Nicholson and Cook Strait.

The first sealers, whalers and traders should no longer be denied their rightful place as Wellington's first pioneers. Included are 50 mini-chapters about those pakeha who were here before the colony in Wellington began ...

There is also a chapter by Charles Heaphy on what he saw at Port Nicholson in 1839, and an appendix written by the late John O'C. Ross on 'The European discovery and naming of Port Nicholson'