Battlefields of the NZ Wars: A visitor’s guide
Most of us are clued up on Gallipoli and El Alamein, but how many New Zealanders know that they pass by battlefields equally important to this country when they drive between Auckland and Hamilton on State Highway 1? Or along Cameron Road in downtown Tauranga? Or down the busy highway between New Plymouth and Waitara?
This book by David Green, to be published by Penguin Books in 2010, tells the stories of these little-known battle sites of the New Zealand Wars, and describes scores more across the country. The text combines a lively history of the nation-making conflicts between Maori and Pakeha of the 1840s and 1860s with detailed driving instructions and information about what to look for when you get there. Contemporary and recent photographs, paintings and maps will help visitors understand what happened at these historic but now sadly neglected places.