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1000
First inhabitants- 1000AD or CE
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. -
Iwi migrate to the South Island/ Te Waipounamu
From the East Coast, Ngāi Tahu migrated south, first to Wellington, then across Cook Strait to the South Island -
Kaiapoi established by Ngāi Tahu as a central trading kainga
By 1800 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. Their largest settlement was a fortified pā at Kaiapoi. This was also a major trading centre for pounamu or greenstone. -
Tracks developed in Ōtautahi between Kaiapoi and Rāpaki kainga
The main track between Kaiapoi and another settlement at Rāpaki followed a path between the swamps and the two rivers, Ōtākaro (Avon) and Ōpāwaho (Heathcote). -
Cook sights the Canterbury Peninsula
Lieutenant James Cook concluded that the land he had sighted was an island and named it after the expedition’s botanist, Joseph Banks. The mistake was not realised until 1809, when Captain Samuel Chase of the Pegasus tried to sail between Banks ‘Island’ and the Canterbury mainland.