This is a memoir of the Petersens, one of the first families to settle at Croydon Bush, a farming district near Gore in Southland. Full of tales of Sydney convicts, Māori princesses and Norwegian whalers who jumped ship, their story is typical of the many thousands of settlers who came to New Zealand.Caught up in the settlement of Auckland, the New Zealand Land Wars, Otago and Port Preservation gold rushes, the Petersens were among those involved in the closer settlement of the Waimea Plains.This account tells how ordinary people built a new community – and a new nation.