Banks Peninsula
Banks Peninsula is a rocky peninsula on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand that was formed by two now-extinct volcanoes. It has an area of approximately. It includes two large deep-water harbours – Lyttelton Harbour and Akaroa Harbour – and many smaller bays and coves. The South Island's largest city, Christchurch, is immediately north of the peninsula, which is administered by Christchurch City Council. The main settlements are Lyttelton and Akaroa. The peninsula's economy is based on fisheries, farming and tourism.
Māori were the first people to visit, and settle, the peninsula. The already sparse population was reduced further following massacres by raiding parties of North Island Māori in 1830 and 1832. In 1770, explorer James Cook became the first European to sight the peninsula, which he mistook for an island, naming it after his ship's botanist Joseph Banks. From the 1830s, European whalers set up shore-based stations in some of the bays and harbours. European interest in the permanent settlement of the area developed in the 1830s, and in 1840 a small French settlement was established in Akaroa Harbour, which lasted for around ten years. In the late 1840s, the Canterbury Association in England chose the central South Island as the site for a model English colony with Christchurch as its capital. Banks Peninsula was not part of the original land purchase for the colony, but Port Cooper was to be its port and point of entry. The first 800 settlers arrived in December 1850.
Lyttelton is the working port of Christchurch. Leisure and environmental activities are popular on the peninsula.
History
Prehistory – Māori period
According to tradition, the first Māori settlers of the area now known as Banks Peninsula were the Waitaha, led by their founding ancestor Rākaihautū. The Māori name for the peninsula is Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū in recognition of his deeds and the abundance of mahinga kai. They were followed by Kāti Māmoe, and then the Ngāi Tahu hapū Ngāi Tūhaitara, who arrived in the 1730s.1770–1832 – Captain Cook; limited European interest; Te Rauparaha and Māori massacres
The first European sighting of the peninsula was on 17 February 1770 by Captain James Cook and crew during Cook's first circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook described the land as "of a circular figure... of a very broken uneven surface and more the appearance of barrenness than fertility." Deceived by the outline of higher land behind the peninsula, Cook mistook it for an island and named it "Banks Island" in honour of s botanist, Joseph Banks. Distracted by a phantom sighting of land to the southeast, Cook then ordered Endeavour away to the south without exploring more closely.In 1809, Captain Samuel Chase, in the sealer Pegasus, corrected Cook's charts by determining that "Banks Island" was in fact a peninsula. His first officer, William Stewart, charted this area of the coast. Pegasus Bay is named after their vessel.
In 1830, the Māori settlement at Takapūneke was sacked and the local Ngāi Tahu chief, Tama-i-hara-nui, captured by Ngāti Toa war chief Te Rauparaha, with the assistance of the captain of the British brig Elizabeth, John Stewart. This was a revenge attack for the killing of several Ngāti Toa chiefs at Kaiapoi Pā in 1829. Ngāti Toa returned in 1832 to sack Kaiapoi Pā and Ōnawe Pā. It was partly as a result of these massacres that the British authorities sent James Busby, as official British Resident, to New Zealand in 1832, and one of the factors that led to the Treaty of Waitangi.
1830–1848 – Whalers, the French, Britain asserts sovereignty
During the 1830s, a few vagrant settlers from Britain and America lived on and near the peninsula, with some taking Māori wives. Several European whaling bases were established on Banks Peninsula. In 1838, Captain Jean François Langlois, a French whaler, decided that Akaroa would make a good settlement to service whaling ships and made a provisional purchase of land in "the greater Banks Peninsula" from 12 Kāi Tahu chiefs. A deposit of commodities in the value of £6 was paid and a further £234 worth of commodities was to be paid at a later period. He returned to France, advertised for settlers to go to New Zealand, and ceded his interest in the land to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, of which he became a part owner. On 9 March 1840 he set sail for New Zealand with a group of French and German families aboard the ship, with the intention of forming a French colony on a French South Island of New Zealand. By the time Langlois and his colonists arrived at Banks Peninsula in August 1840, many Māori had already signed the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand's first British Governor, William Hobson, had declared British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand. On hearing of the French plan for colonisation, Hobson quickly dispatched HMS Britomart from the Bay of Islands to Akaroa with police magistrates on board. While Langlois and his colonists sheltered from unfavourable winds at Pigeon Bay on the other side of the peninsula, the British raised their flag at Greens Point between Akaroa and Takapūneke and courts of law convened to assert British sovereignty over the South Island. The French colonists arrived in Akaroa Harbour on 18 August and established a settlement centred on the present-day site of Akaroa. Given that the French colonists had set out for New Zealand on the assumption that they owned the land, the New Zealand authorities made a grant of 30,000 acres to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, which ceded all rights to the peninsula for £4,500.1848–1876 – The Canterbury Association and the Canterbury Province
During the 1840s, the peninsula and the Canterbury Plains beyond were considered for colonisation, but it took until 1848 for the Canterbury Association chief surveyor Captain Joseph Thomas to survey the surrounding plains and prepare for the arrival of the Canterbury pilgrims in December 1850.The Canterbury Province was abolished at midnight on 31 December 1876.
1877–2006 – Akaroa County and Banks Peninsula District
, which covered most of Banks Peninsula, was one of the counties of New Zealand established in 1877. The council first met in Akaroa courthouse on 4 January 1877. In 1880 new offices were opened at Duvauchelle. An area around Lyttelton was separated off in 1902 to form Mount Herbert County. Counties were abolished in 1989 and most of the peninsula then came within the Banks Peninsula District, which was itself abolished in 2006.Geography
Geology
Banks Peninsula forms the most prominent volcanic feature of the South Island, similar to – but more than twice as large as – the older Dunedin Volcano to the southwest. Geologically, the peninsula comprises the eroded remnants of two large shield volcanoes, and the smaller Mount Herbert Volcanic Group. These formed due to intraplate volcanism between approximately eleven and eight million years ago on a continental crust. The peninsula formed as offshore islands, with the volcanoes reaching to about 1,500 m above sea level. Two dominant craters formed Lyttelton and Akaroa Harbours.The Canterbury Plains were formed from the erosion of the Southern Alps and from the alluvial fans created by large braided rivers. These plains reach their widest point where they meet the hilly sub-region of Banks Peninsula. A layer of loess, a rather unstable fine silt deposited by the foehn winds that bluster across the plains, covers the northern and western flanks of the peninsula. The portion of crater rim lying between Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō and Christchurch city forms the Port Hills.
This low-lying lake-filled isthmus is responsible for James Cook mistaking Banks Peninsula for an island. From a geological perspective, Cook was not so much incorrect, as late. For 15 million years, Banks Peninsula existed as a volcanic island, and it was only in the last 20,000 years that an isthmus to the Canterbury Plains emerged, transforming the island into a peninsula.
Climate
Towns
Lyttelton
is an historic port town in Lyttelton Harbour. The colonial port has expanded destination for cruise ships as well as large goods-transport vessels.Akaroa
is a main township of Akaroa harbour. Many people have a holiday house at Akaroa or visit for a holiday or day trip from Christchurch. The township began as a whaling port, and over ten years from 1835 to 1845, southern right whale were hunted to near extinction. Following the decline of the whaling industry, sawmilling and cutting cocksfoot grass emerged as a primary industry, and subsequently it became a rural hub, servicing sheep and beef farmers. Today, Akaroa's economy is closely tied to the environment, with tourism – particularly marine nature tourism – serving as its principal source of income.Little River
is a small town at the end of the Little River Rail Trail. There are several art galleries, a camp ground, rugby club and primary school there. Wairewa.Wainui
Wainui is a settlement of mostly holiday houses on the Akaroa harbour.Wainui can mean 'big water' or 'big river' or 'big bay'. Wainui was once home to a large Ngāti Māmoe settlement. Wainui has important associations for Ngāi Tahu as the bay was then claimed by Te Ruahikihiki for Ngāi Tahu. He made his claim when he landed at Wainui and dug for fern roots there.. In Ngāi Tahu legend, Tuhiraki, which lies behind Wainui, is the resting place of the kō of Rakaihautū. He used this digging stick to dig out many of the South Island lakes.
In 1856, the Wainui Māori Reserve was established and set aside 432 acres for the Ngāi Tarewa Hapū of Ngāi Tahu. In the 1857 census, there was 40 people living there but by 1861, this had declined to 20 people.
A post office was established in 1874, telephone office in 1875, school in 1885 and Presbyterian Church in 1911.