03-573-8283
Wayne Martin
In June 1866 five travellers were murdered on the Maungatapu Track that connects the South Island provinces of Nelson and Marlborough. These crimes and others committed by the Burgess gang were unparalleled in colonial New Zealand for their scale and cold-bloodedness.
Wayne Martin presents a tale of blood and gold, of betrayal and vengeance.
Opaua Publishing
Experience 14 months in the life of a young Kiwi soldier from Blenheim, as it unfolds through his letters home.
Edward Duyker
A substantial biography of explorer Jules-Sebastien-Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842). Sometimes called France's Captain Cook, d'Urville visited New Zealand three times and contributed widely to scientific, geographic and navigational knowledge in the West.
$70
Ed. Baker & Rankin
Fiona Pardington's extraordinary images of more than 50 life head casts made by phrenologist Pierre-Marie Mumoutier for Dumont D'Urville on his travels through the Pacific from 1837 to 1840. Includes images of Maori, Pacific and European casts.
An Illustrated History of New Zealand's Lighthouses
Timothy Nicol
This book takes its readers on a present-day annual tour of inspection of lighthouses, beacons, buoys and various aids to seagoing navigation around the entire coast of New Zealand.
Together with historical details, facts and anecdotes, the book commemorates the spirit and committment of lighthouse keepers and their families.
Timothy Nicol spend 10 years as maintaining and renewing the lighthouses of NZ, and a lifetime at sea.
Paul Moon
Selected by leading historian Dr Paul Moon, each of the 50 documents highlighted in this book gives an insight into the relationships between Pakeha and Maori, and the development of New Zealand as today's independent nation.
Each document is illustrated and is provided with a description and historical context.
Barbara Todd
Enter the underwater world of whales and dolphins and discover these magnificent marine mammals through extraordinary pictures, powerful storytelling and scientific research.
Thom Conroy
A fascinating, moving novel based on the real life of Dr Ernst Dieffenbach: scientist, explorer, revolutionary and outcast.
Featuring Darwin, Charles Heaphy and Te Rauparaha, "The Naturalist" connects New Zealand's past with world history and brings alive the story of this remarkable man.
Pat Akerblom
A collection of the Mills family history and much information about the life and times of Charles Houghton Mills.
Pat Akerblom
This book offers a view of who Captain Blenkinsop was, how he fits into the story of the settlement of Blenheim and the Marlborough Plains by colonial settlers, and his life and death. Excerpts of contemporary writing of the man and his exploits are used to explain his life in New Zealand.
Pat Akerblom
Pat's story of the more recent history of the Akerblom family at Endeavour Inlet, and their part in the the development of the Queen Charlotte Track and accommodation for trampers.
$30
Vincent O'Malley
The New Zealand Wars of the mid-nineteenth century profoundly shaped the course and direction of New Zealand's history.
This book takes us to the heart of these conflicts with a series of first-hand accounts from Maori and Pakeha who either fought in or witnessed the wars that ravaged New Zealand from 1845 to 1872.
Carolyn King
Uniquely, New Zealand has no four legged indigenous land mammals. Instead, we have two bat species and 57 species of seals, dolphins and whales.
This book describes and celebrates the the extraordinary history and diversity of our mammals, from their influence on Maori culture, their exploitation by 19th century sealers and whalers, and their contemporary recovery.
Fully illustrated and clearly laid out, this is an excellent reference guide for all.
Catherine Bishop
New Zealand's nineteenth century towns were full of entrepreneurial women. Then, as now, there were no 'typical' businesswomen. They were middle and working class; young and old; Maori and Pakeha; single, married, widowed and sometimes bigamists.
This fascinating book showcasees many individual businesswomen whose efforts, collectively, contributed to the making of urban life in New Zealand.
Peter Jerram
In April 1967 the New Zealand interisland passenger ferry "Wahine" hit Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour in a cyclone, the worst storm ever recorded in New Zealand's history at the time. Six and half hours later the ship sank, with the loss of 53 lives. Among the 610 passengers and 125 crew was the Lincoln College cricket team, of which Peter Jerram was a member.
This book offerzs a riviting firsthand account of New Zealand's worst modern maritime disaster and the unbreakable bond formed by those who survived.
Gordon McLauchlan
Well known as an author, journalist and social commentator, Gordon McLachlan's 'Short History' was first published in 2004. Twenty years on, this succinct, lively and well referenced book still offers an accessible introduction to New Zealand history and is particularly relevant in relation to current politics and social attitudes.
Gerard Hindmarsh
in 1906, at just 16 years of age, Angelina Moleta left the tiny volcanic island of Stromboli in the Aoelian islands south of Italy, to travel to an even more remote island on the other side of the world - D'Urville Island, in the Marlborough Sound.
Written by one of Angelina's grandchildren, this is a facinating history of love, triumph and perseverance in a new world.
History has played out in complex ways in the bays, coves and steep rising hills of the Marlborough Sounds- Maori and Pakeha, land and sea, boom and bust, locals and tourists.
This book brings together the various strands of Sounds history in a wide-ranging, engrossing and richly illustrated account of the place and its people.
Barry Holdaway
A detail of the "capital" comprising of hotels, wool stores and wharf structures formed along the Wairau River in Marlborough, which eventually declined and is unknown of today.
Henry D. Kelly
This centennial history of Picton explores the first Maori inhabitants, the presence of Captain Cook and the early whalers. First published in 1976, this book has some gems but comes with a 14 page list of corrections compiled over the last 40+ years.
Maori who went Sperm Whaling before 1840
Rhys Richards
A committed maritime historian with a particular interest in whaling around the world, Rhys brings new light to the intersection of European and Maori in this study of Maori whalers in the early 19th century.
Tom Kennedy
The first of the set of three handbooks detailing the history of Ngakuta Bay.
Tom Kennedy
Sequel to Ngakuta Bay, with further history of the the Bay.
Tom Kennedy
The last of the set of three handbooks detailing the history of Ngakuta Bay.
Quinn Berentson
An important book that richly recounts the life and death of New Zealand's feathered monster, the Moa.
Graeme Sturgeon
A novel recounting the life of a young whaler captured by Maori in the early 1800's, the story of a man trapped between two cultures.
Russell Smith
One of the original seaplane pilots in the Marlborough Sounds, Russell writes stories of incredible happenings, some adventurous, many humorous, and some just plain harrowing, during the early years of Float Air in the nineteen seventies and eighties.
Rhys Richards
Maritime historian Rhys Richards brings us an in-depth analysis of the effect of whaling on the Southern Right Whale population. 'Nga Tohora' begins in New Zealand waters and covers whaling for Right Whales in the southern oceans. Rhys draws on new sources to identify diminishing whale stocks since whaling beganin the 1780s and the the slow recovery of the whale population since then.
Karen Stade
The Memoir of Captain Henry Rose, who went to sea at 14-years-old and rose to command some of the fastest clipper ships in the world.
Helen Godsiff
Fragments of history from Kenepuru of the Marlborough Sounds.
Ted Tangye
An account of wartime travel which begins with a party of twenty-four Ordinary Seamen, which eventuates to a lucky thirteen.
Mike Taylor
A detailed description of the history of Waikawa School of the Queen Charlotte Sound.
Don Wilson
This book details Patrick Norton's life during the the seven-month voyage of the convict ship Providence from Cove of Cork to Sydney Harbour.
John Dawson & Rob Lucas
A comprehensive yet compact field guide containing detailed information for the identification of all native trees found on the main islands of New Zealand.
Joan Bythell
Joan Bythell was 89 years old when she wrote the history of Bythell's Bay, which her father bought in 1916.
Published by her family in 2007, the book is an ode to a family's love affair with this bay in Queen Charlotte Sound. Full of photos.
Hilary and John Mitchell
Isaac Coates was an Englishman living in Wellington between 1841 and 1845. During this time, he painted watercolour portraits of 58 Maori from Nelson, Marlborough, Wellington, Waikanae and Kapiti.
This magnificent book relates each portrait to its subjects' whakapapa (where known) and biography of their lives.
Rachel Buchanan
This stunning book examines how five interconnected carved panels, Te Motunui Epa, have journeyed across the world and changed practices, understanding and international law on the protection and repatriation of stolen cultural treasures.
The author says "this is a story about the power of art to help us find a way through the darkness. It is about how art can bring out the best in us, and the worst."
Harry C. Evison
Harry Evison re-examines New Zealand colonial history in this book, particulary in relation to the ten Ngai Tahu deeds by which the Crown acquired Maori title to the southern half of New Zealand from 1844 to 1864.
A unique feature of the book is its handsome colour reproductions of these deeds and their plans. Sixteen chapters of text provide a fresh account of the period and the key people involved, and can challenge some popular assumptions about our history.
James R. Eyles
Jim Eyles was brought up on the isolated boulder bankat Wairau Bar, on the shores of Cloudy Bay in Marlborough. Moa bones and adzes turned up by his father's plough sparked a life-long fascination for archaeology, but it was the discovery Jim made as a 13 year old that brough Wairau Bar's history to life. Ancient burial sites containing perforated moa eggs and Marquesan-style necklaces, proof that men had come to New Zealand from Western Polynesia and that they had co-existed with the moa.
Ariana Tikao and Mat Tait
The story of Te Ra - the last known customary Maori sail - weaves together our past, present and future. Skillfully woven from harakeke more than 200 years ago, Te Ra has been held for many years in the British Museum in London but has recently returned to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Lyrically wirtten as if from Te Ra's viewpoint and beautifully illustrated, this book commemorates the homecoming of one of our oldest taoka, an ancestor of our nation.
Ron Perano
Marlborough mariner, adventurer and entrepreneur, Ron Perano relates key moments from his remarkable life.
This account of his family whaling history, his early life at the Wairau Boulder Bank and his subsequent business and adventuring carerr are told in his personal style, with many supporting images.
Alsop & Kupenga
Illustrated throughout with photographs from an old world, this delightful book draws on traditional Maori wisdom to provide a recipe for personal effectiveness and leadership, and a rewarding connection of Maori knowledge to contemporary thinking baout personal happiness and fulfilment.
Elizabeth Mullin & Marilen Hegglun
An area of the Marlborough Sounds steeped in European and Maori history as outlined in the early chapters is added to with the reminiscences from a lifetime of holidaying in this idyllic bay in the heart o Tory Channel.