Lady Travellers

The true stories of the extraordinary women who visited New Zealand when it was a fledgling colony. 19th century New Zealand: land of Maori, mountains, fiords, forests and volcanoes - an exotic, far-flung frontier of the British Empire. It proved irresistably attractive to the intrepid Victorians. To get there, men and women braved ships and seas few would even contemplate today. Although they were 'lady' travellers, they were resilient gutsy women who, revelling in their escape from the polite parlours of society, hitched up their skirts and grasped a slice of adventure. One young traveller witnessed her mother being slaughtered: another was murdered. From the governor's lady to the conqueror of Mount Cook; from war correspondent to Victorian tomboy, the lives of these very early tourists have been captured in this work.