Notes

Will Donahue and his family are leaving to start a new life in the fledgling colony of New Zealand. Will dreams of adventure in a strange and exotic land far from the world he knows, that of 1830s England. However, his father has other, more mundane, ideas. He wants Will to jion him, working behind the counter of the family store. Little do either of them know that, after a devastating sea voyage, they will arrive in Port Nicholson to discover that the picturesque town of parks and squares promised by the New Zealand company is nothing but pie in the sky. As Will's family and the other settlers struggle to build the town that will one day become Wellington, they must overcome harsh conditions and dificult terrain - and face the anger of the Maori whose land they have unwittingly taken.