When European navigators first sailed into this region, they were astonished at the exotic shared culture and language of the natives, separated in some cases by terrifying stretches of open ocean. The story of the peopling of the South Pacific Islands and New Zealand is one of the world's great sagas.
The book covers the whole scope of New Zealand's past and present history and allows the reader to make sense of what they see in a way that no other guidebook can.