"In the place names of a country large parts of its history are embalmed … The names persist longer than the beings who gave them." —J.C. Andersen

Place names have great linguistic and cultural significance, vivifying the landscape and giving it deeper character and interest. Banks Peninsula, Lyttelton Harbour and the Port Hills of Christchurch offer a wonderfully diverse and kaleidoscopic array of names that speak of the area’s Maori and colonial history and the people who have lived and worked there. Engagingly written, brimming with information and enriched with black and white photographs and stunning color plates, this substantial volume is an important addition to Gordon Ogilvie’s popular and acclaimed histories of Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills.

Gordon Ogilvie was born in Christchurch in 1934 and brought up in Horotane Valley. His love of Port Hills history began with a growing appreciation of the Heathcote-Ferrymead district, so crucial to the early development of Canterbury, and holidays on Banks Peninsula gave him a taste for Peninsula history.