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Banks Peninsula
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Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula (Māori: Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū) is a rocky peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand that was formed by two now-extinct volcanoes. It has an area of approximately 1,200 square kilometres (450 sq mi). It includes two large deep-water harbours – Lyttelton Harbour and Akaroa Harbour – and many smaller bays and coves. The South Island's largest city, Christchurch, is immediately north of the peninsula, which is administered by Christchurch City Council. The main settlements are Lyttelton and Akaroa. The peninsula's economy is based on fisheries, farming and tourism.
Māori were the first people to visit, and settle, the peninsula. The already sparse population was reduced further following massacres by raiding parties of North Island Māori in 1830 and 1832. In 1770, explorer James Cook became the first European to sight the peninsula, which he mistook for an island, naming it after his ship's botanist Joseph Banks. From the 1830s, European whalers set up shore-based stations in some of the bays and harbours. European interest in the permanent settlement of the area developed in the 1830s, and in 1840 a small French settlement was established in Akaroa Harbour, which lasted for around ten years. In the late 1840s, the Canterbury Association in England chose the central South Island as the site for a model English colony with Christchurch as its capital. Banks Peninsula was not part of the original land purchase for the colony, but Port Cooper (now known as Lyttelton Harbour) was to be its port and point of entry. The first 800 settlers arrived in December 1850.
Lyttelton is the working port of Christchurch. Leisure and environmental activities are popular on the peninsula.
According to tradition, the first Māori settlers of the area now known as Banks Peninsula were the Waitaha, led by their founding ancestor Rākaihautū. The Māori name for the peninsula is Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū (The Storehouse of Rākaihautū) in recognition of his deeds and the abundance of mahinga kai (foods of the forests, sea, rivers and skies). They were followed by Kāti Māmoe, and then the Ngāi Tahu hapū Ngāi Tūhaitara, who arrived in the 1730s.
The first European sighting of the peninsula was on 17 February 1770 by Captain James Cook and crew during Cook's first circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook described the land as "of a circular figure ... of a very broken uneven surface and [having] more the appearance of barrenness than fertility." Deceived by the outline of higher land behind the peninsula, Cook mistook it for an island and named it "Banks Island" in honour of Endeavour's botanist, Joseph Banks. Distracted by a phantom sighting of land to the southeast, Cook then ordered Endeavour away to the south without exploring more closely.
In 1809, Captain Samuel Chase, in the sealer Pegasus, corrected Cook's charts by determining that "Banks Island" was in fact a peninsula. His first officer, William Stewart, charted this area of the coast. Pegasus Bay is named after their vessel.
In 1830, the Māori settlement at Takapūneke was sacked and the local Ngāi Tahu chief, Tama-i-hara-nui, captured by Ngāti Toa war chief Te Rauparaha, with the assistance of the captain of the British brig Elizabeth, John Stewart. This was a revenge attack for the killing of several Ngāti Toa chiefs at Kaiapoi Pā in 1829. Ngāti Toa returned in 1832 to sack Kaiapoi Pā and Ōnawe Pā. It was partly as a result of these massacres that the British authorities sent James Busby, as official British Resident, to New Zealand in 1832, and one of the factors that led to the Treaty of Waitangi.
During the 1830s, a few vagrant settlers from Britain and America lived on and near the peninsula, with some taking Māori wives. Several European whaling bases were established on Banks Peninsula. In 1838, Captain Jean François Langlois, a French whaler, decided that Akaroa would make a good settlement to service whaling ships and made a provisional purchase of land in "the greater Banks Peninsula" from 12 Kāi Tahu chiefs. A deposit of commodities in the value of £6 was paid and a further £234 worth of commodities was to be paid at a later period. He returned to France, advertised for settlers to go to New Zealand, and ceded his interest in the land to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, of which he became a part owner. On 9 March 1840 he set sail for New Zealand with a group of French and German families aboard the ship Comte de Paris, with the intention of forming a French colony on a French South Island of New Zealand. By the time Langlois and his colonists arrived at Banks Peninsula in August 1840, many Māori had already signed the Treaty of Waitangi (the signatories including two chiefs at Akaroa in May) and New Zealand's first British Governor, William Hobson, had declared British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand. On hearing of the French plan for colonisation, Hobson quickly dispatched HMS Britomart from the Bay of Islands to Akaroa with police magistrates on board. While Langlois and his colonists sheltered from unfavourable winds at Pigeon Bay on the other side of the peninsula, the British raised their flag at Greens Point between Akaroa and Takapūneke and courts of law convened to assert British sovereignty over the South Island. The French colonists arrived in Akaroa Harbour on 18 August and established a settlement centred on the present-day site of Akaroa. Given that the French colonists had set out for New Zealand on the assumption that they owned the land, the New Zealand authorities made a grant of 30,000 acres to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, which ceded all rights to the peninsula for £4,500.
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Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula (Māori: Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū) is a rocky peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand that was formed by two now-extinct volcanoes. It has an area of approximately 1,200 square kilometres (450 sq mi). It includes two large deep-water harbours – Lyttelton Harbour and Akaroa Harbour – and many smaller bays and coves. The South Island's largest city, Christchurch, is immediately north of the peninsula, which is administered by Christchurch City Council. The main settlements are Lyttelton and Akaroa. The peninsula's economy is based on fisheries, farming and tourism.
Māori were the first people to visit, and settle, the peninsula. The already sparse population was reduced further following massacres by raiding parties of North Island Māori in 1830 and 1832. In 1770, explorer James Cook became the first European to sight the peninsula, which he mistook for an island, naming it after his ship's botanist Joseph Banks. From the 1830s, European whalers set up shore-based stations in some of the bays and harbours. European interest in the permanent settlement of the area developed in the 1830s, and in 1840 a small French settlement was established in Akaroa Harbour, which lasted for around ten years. In the late 1840s, the Canterbury Association in England chose the central South Island as the site for a model English colony with Christchurch as its capital. Banks Peninsula was not part of the original land purchase for the colony, but Port Cooper (now known as Lyttelton Harbour) was to be its port and point of entry. The first 800 settlers arrived in December 1850.
Lyttelton is the working port of Christchurch. Leisure and environmental activities are popular on the peninsula.
According to tradition, the first Māori settlers of the area now known as Banks Peninsula were the Waitaha, led by their founding ancestor Rākaihautū. The Māori name for the peninsula is Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū (The Storehouse of Rākaihautū) in recognition of his deeds and the abundance of mahinga kai (foods of the forests, sea, rivers and skies). They were followed by Kāti Māmoe, and then the Ngāi Tahu hapū Ngāi Tūhaitara, who arrived in the 1730s.
The first European sighting of the peninsula was on 17 February 1770 by Captain James Cook and crew during Cook's first circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook described the land as "of a circular figure ... of a very broken uneven surface and [having] more the appearance of barrenness than fertility." Deceived by the outline of higher land behind the peninsula, Cook mistook it for an island and named it "Banks Island" in honour of Endeavour's botanist, Joseph Banks. Distracted by a phantom sighting of land to the southeast, Cook then ordered Endeavour away to the south without exploring more closely.
In 1809, Captain Samuel Chase, in the sealer Pegasus, corrected Cook's charts by determining that "Banks Island" was in fact a peninsula. His first officer, William Stewart, charted this area of the coast. Pegasus Bay is named after their vessel.
In 1830, the Māori settlement at Takapūneke was sacked and the local Ngāi Tahu chief, Tama-i-hara-nui, captured by Ngāti Toa war chief Te Rauparaha, with the assistance of the captain of the British brig Elizabeth, John Stewart. This was a revenge attack for the killing of several Ngāti Toa chiefs at Kaiapoi Pā in 1829. Ngāti Toa returned in 1832 to sack Kaiapoi Pā and Ōnawe Pā. It was partly as a result of these massacres that the British authorities sent James Busby, as official British Resident, to New Zealand in 1832, and one of the factors that led to the Treaty of Waitangi.
During the 1830s, a few vagrant settlers from Britain and America lived on and near the peninsula, with some taking Māori wives. Several European whaling bases were established on Banks Peninsula. In 1838, Captain Jean François Langlois, a French whaler, decided that Akaroa would make a good settlement to service whaling ships and made a provisional purchase of land in "the greater Banks Peninsula" from 12 Kāi Tahu chiefs. A deposit of commodities in the value of £6 was paid and a further £234 worth of commodities was to be paid at a later period. He returned to France, advertised for settlers to go to New Zealand, and ceded his interest in the land to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, of which he became a part owner. On 9 March 1840 he set sail for New Zealand with a group of French and German families aboard the ship Comte de Paris, with the intention of forming a French colony on a French South Island of New Zealand. By the time Langlois and his colonists arrived at Banks Peninsula in August 1840, many Māori had already signed the Treaty of Waitangi (the signatories including two chiefs at Akaroa in May) and New Zealand's first British Governor, William Hobson, had declared British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand. On hearing of the French plan for colonisation, Hobson quickly dispatched HMS Britomart from the Bay of Islands to Akaroa with police magistrates on board. While Langlois and his colonists sheltered from unfavourable winds at Pigeon Bay on the other side of the peninsula, the British raised their flag at Greens Point between Akaroa and Takapūneke and courts of law convened to assert British sovereignty over the South Island. The French colonists arrived in Akaroa Harbour on 18 August and established a settlement centred on the present-day site of Akaroa. Given that the French colonists had set out for New Zealand on the assumption that they owned the land, the New Zealand authorities made a grant of 30,000 acres to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, which ceded all rights to the peninsula for £4,500.
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