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Period: 1642 BCE to 1642 BCE
Able Tasman discovers North Island
Able Tasman discovers the North Island. -
Period: 1500 BCE to 1700 BCE
First Inhabitants
The first people to live in the place now known as Christchurch were moa hunters, who probably arrived there as early as AD 1000. The hunters cleared large areas of mataī and tōtara forest by fire and by about 1450 the moa had been killed off. North Island Māori (Ngati Māmoe and later Ngāi Tahu) arrived in Canterbury between 1500 and 1700. The remaining moa hunters were killed or taken into the tribes. -
Period: to
Captain Cook maps the whole of Aotearoa
On Cook’s chart the South Island is narrow-waisted because Cook did not realise how far east the Canterbury Plains extended. The Endeavour was often kept well offshore of the South Island by winds, and Cook found it difficult to determine his exact longitude because he did not have a chronometer on his first voyage. But the island is recognisable, and the main areas of mountainous country are recorded correctly. -
Period: to
First European Contact
On 16 February 1770 Captain James Cook in his ship the Endeavour first sighted the Canterbury peninsula. He thought it was an island, and named it Banks Island after the ship’s botanist, Joseph Banks. It was probably not until 1815 when sailors from the sealing ship Governor Bligh landed that Europeans first set foot on Banks Peninsula. -
Period: to
NZ company founded with aim to create english colonies in NZ, 1839
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Period: to
Treaty of Waitangi 6 Feb 1840
The Treaty of Waitangi (Māori: Tiriti o Waitangi) is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand. It resulted in the declaration of British sovereignty over New Zealand by Lieutenant Governor William Hobson in May 1840. -
Period: to
First Whaling ship in NZ 1891
Māori probably did not hunt whales before Europeans arrived. But if they found one washed up on a beach they would cut it up for food. The first whaling ship, from America, came to New Zealand waters in 1791. Over the next 10 years, the seas around New Zealand became a popular place to catch whales. There were plenty of them, and New Zealand provided safe waters and a place to stock up on food and wood. A lot of American and French whalers arrived in the 1830s.