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1000
First inhabitants- 1000AD or CE
The first people to live here were Moa hunters, they cleared large areas of Mataī and tōtara forest by fire and by about 1450 the Moa had been killed off. -
1500
Ngati Mamoe migrate to the South Island/ Te Waipounamu
In the 1500's, Ngati Mamoe migrated from the north island to Te Waipounamu. -
Ngai Tahu migrate to the South Island/Te Waipounamu
Ngai Tahu migrate from the North Island down to the South Island in the 1700's. -
Cook sights the Canterbury Peninsula
Captain James Cook first sighted the Canterbury peninsula while aboard his ship, the Endeavour. He thought it was a island and so named it Banks Island, after the ships botanist, Joseph Banks. -
Kaiapoi established by Ngāi Tahu as a central trading kainga
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. The Kaiapoi pā was their largest settlement. It was also a major trading centre for pounamu and greenstone. -
Tracks developed in Ōtautahi between Kaiapoi and Rāpaki
The track between Kaiapoi and Rapaki followed a path between the swamps and the two rivers, Avon, and Heathcote. -
Europeans land on Banks Peninsula
When sailors from the sealing ship Governor Bligh landed, that was the first time Europeans had set foot on Banks Peninsula. In 1827 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. -
Ngāti Toa raids by Te Rauparaha
Te Rauparaha and the Ngāti Toa tribe raided the South Island from 1830-1832. By the mid 1830s Te Rauparaha and his allies had conquered the south-west of the North Island and most of the northern half of the South Island. -
Māori population declines
Between the 1820's and 1830's the Maori population declined dramatically. There were many reasons why but the main ones were fighting between different groups of Ngai Tahu, Ngati Toa raids, and the impact of European diseases like measles and influenza, which caused hundreds of Maori to die. -
Farming settlements established in Akaroa
Captain William Rhodes had first visited Akaroa in 1836. He came back in 1839 and brought with him a herd of 50 cattle, which he landed near Akaroa. -
Te Tiriti o Waitangi signed
Major Thomas Bunbury arrived in May 1840 on the HMS Herald to get the signatures of the Ngai Tahu cheifs for the Treaty of Waitangi. The treaty had been in the Bay of Islands earlier that year on the 6th of February. Many North Island chiefs had signed it. During Bunburys visit only 2 South Island chiefs signed it. -
Deans family establish farming at Riccarton Bush/ Pūtaringāmotu
In 1843 William and John Deans arrived and established a farm at Pūtaringamotu. Together with the Manson and Gebbie families they built the first European house on the Canterbury Plains. They named the area Riccarton after the parish they came from in Scotland, and the nearby river the Avon, after a stream on their grandfather’s farm. -
Canterbury Settlement underway
In November 1847 John Robert Godley and Edward Gibbon Wakefield met to plan the Canterbury settlement. Early in 1848 the Canterbury Association was formed, and it was decided to name the capital city Christchurch after the college John Godley had gone to at Oxford University. -
Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed ‘Kemp’s Deed’
Governor Grey sent the land commissioner Henry Kemp to the South Island in 1848 to buy land for the new settlement. Sixteen Ngāi Tahu chiefs signed ‘Kemp’s Deed’, selling the larger part of their land for £2,000, but keeping some land for settlements and reserves, and those places where they gathered food (mahinga kai). This was signed at Akaroa on 12 June 1848. -
Immigrants from England arrive on the ship Charlotte Jane
The Charlotte Jane arrived in Lyttelton on the morning of December 16, 1850, and was met by Godley and Sir George and Lady Grey. The first ashore of the travellers, known as the Pilgrims, was James Edward Fitzgerald, who leapfrogged over Dr Alfred Barker, sitting in the prow of the rowing boat.