Christchurch

The first of the ships bringing those who became known as the "Canterbury Pilgrims" arrived in Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand on the 16th December 1850. These English colonists, however, were not the first settlers in that part of New Zealand. A few families had established themselves on the northern shore of Banks Peninsula, New Zealand and on the plain lay a solitary homestead, where William and John Deans had established themselves in 1843. About the same time the Hays and Sinclairs had settled on the Peninsula, and soon afterwards the Greenwoods and Rhodes. Still earlier was the little French settlement at Akaroa, New Zealand.