A Traveller's History of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands will give the curious tourist not only a modern-day portrait of New Zealand and the far-flung islands, their political systems and economic diversity, but also looks at the early settling of this massive area which covers about a fifth of the surface of the earth. 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.

Essential reading for travelers who wish to enjoy the amazing diversity of Australia, this book outlines the history of that great southern democracy from the arrival of the earliest Aborigines some 60,000 years ago to the present. Includes maps and illustrations.