Captain James Cook in his ship the Endeavour first sighted the Canterbury peninsula.
the Ngāi Tūāhuriri sub-tribe of Ngāi Tahu were in control of the coast from the Hurunui River in the north to Lake Ellesmere in the south.
sailors from the sealing ship Governor Bligh landed that Europeans first set foot on Banks Peninsula.
Captain William Wiseman, a flax trader, named the harbour (now known as Lyttelton Harbour) Port Cooper, after one of the owners of the Sydney trading firm, Cooper & Levy.
Captain William Rhodes first visited
Captain George Hempelman set up a whaling station on-shore at Peraki on Banks Peninsula.
Caption William Rhodes came back and landed a herd of 50 cattle near Akaroa.
Major Thomas Bunbury arrived on the HMS Herald to collect the signatures of the Ngāi Tahu chiefs for the Treaty of Waitangi.
William and John Deans arrived and established a farm at Pūtaringamotu.