This would probably be of most interest to ferval but she seems to have left this site.

The Christchurch earthquakes had very little benefits (beyond providing work for building firms and the like) but one that it did bring was a wealth of archaeological artefacts and the knowledge they bring. I have been reading a New Zealand Heritage magazine article about this and they talk about how Christchurch is known as the most English of New Zealand cities but these discoveries from the rubble have shown a new side to the earlier occupation.
When the city took over farmland and natural land rubbish was dumped and it is here that discoveries were make pertinent to the people who lived there. “Glassware, hats, cotton reels, building demolition waste, slag from anearby foundry. Clay pipes are always a wonderful thing: there’s one with a skull on it and bright blue eyes that is just gorgeous,” said the founder of Underground Overground Archeaology.
They found that Chinese people were prominent in the 19^th century running market gardens and shops in the central city (though I might have expected that since that was a well-known feature of many places, perhaps more known in the goldfields than cities), and a large German settlement and a German church where the art gallery now stands.
It also threw up more information about Maori life, though that was more prominent after the Kaikoura earthquakes with Maori middens (food pits) found.
If you are interested in finding out more (over 100,000 artefacts have so far been found and processed and analysed) there is a site called blog.underoverarch.co.nz  I haven’t checked it out yet myself.

I shall have to check out the site you mention, Caro.  I'd be interested to know about communication between New Zealand and other parts of the South Pacific before white settlers went there but maybe that is something that can only be estimated.  I'm not looking at a map but the journey from China to New Zealand would have been "do-able" I guess, though I know the Pacific ocean is very large.  I looked at the online version of the Radio Times recently and they mentioned that an adaptation of The Luminaries is going to be shown later in the year (it is being filmed - or has been filmed in New Zealand).

The Chinese came after the settlement by the British, LIR, firstly chasing gold and eking out a living by painstakingly going through the areas others had not bothered with or at least had taken the easy pickings. They were nearly all men, saving to support their Chinese families. Many of them died here and there was a ship which went down carrying the bodies of men being taken back to China for burial (or cremation?). 
Then they went into providing food, setting up stores in the gold-mining area. When I was a child they were known as market gardeners and for having shops with fruit and vegetables. I discovered that our first home when we married had previously been on a site used by Chinese people growing fruit trees. 

It is thought that the first Polynesians came from Taiwan to the Pacific and that seems to be confirmed by archeological discoveries. So the distances were doable. But it is my understanding that there was little travel after Maori arrived in Aotearoa (it's a mystery to me why not - if they got here, why wouldn't they want to go back?). They must have planned the trip or at least some trip because they had enough women on their waka (big canoes) to settle in NZ for the long-term.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I shall have to check out the site you mention, Caro.  I'd be interested to know about communication between New Zealand and other parts of the South Pacific before white settlers went there but maybe that is something that can only be estimated.  I'm not looking at a map but the journey from China to New Zealand would have been "do-able" I guess, though I know the Pacific ocean is very large.  I looked at the online version of the Radio Times recently and they mentioned that an adaptation of The Luminaries is going to be shown later in the year (it is being filmed - or has been filmed in New Zealand).

Lady and Caro, is it this site?

http://blog.underoverarch.co.nz/2015/12/2015-another-year-down/

Kind regards from Paul.

PS: Just came in from a copious dinner.