A Traveller's History of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands gives the curious tourist not only a modern day portrait of New Zealand and the far flung islands, their political systems and economic diversity, but also a look at the early settling of this massive area which covers about a fifth of whole surface of the earth. When European navigators first sailed into the region they were astonished at the exotic shared culture and language of the natives, separated in some cases by terrifying stretches of open ocean. The story of the peopling of the South Pacific Islands and NZ is one of the world's great epics and John H. Chambers vividly conveys these islands' histories in this book. 'An excellent series of brief histories' New York Times.