A New Land Exhibition - Petone Settlers Museum

On 22 January 1840, the Aurora sailed into Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington Harbour) with the first party of New Zealand Company settlers. Why did people come to this mysterious, distant land? What did they expect and what did they find?

The museum's highly popular audio-visual presentation, 'A New Land, A New Hope, A New People', has been upgraded and now forms part of the west wing displays on migration and settlement. This fascinating programme tells the story of the first organised European settlement by the New Zealand Company; the first impressions of the settlers; the Maori landscape into which they arrived; relations with the Maori and the settlers' own accounts of their early experiences.

This is accompanied by some of the objects from their daily lives and images of the changing face of Petone, where the settlers first experienced a new land and a new life.