Sarah Mathew: Explorer, Journalist and Auckland's 'First Lady'

"When 27-year-old Londoner Sarah Mathew sailed for Sydney in 1831, seeing her married future in Australia, she had no idea that nine years later she would attend the founding of a new British colony a thousand miles to the east. By March 1840, she is in the Bay of Islands, joining husband Felton Mathew, newly appointed New Zealand's first Surveyor-General. Adventurous and fit, she accompanies him on a perilous two-month voyage south in a 46ft cutter to identify a harbour suitable for Governor Hobson's first capital, by sail and on foot covering hundreds of miles from Whangarei to the Firth of Thames. On 18 September 1840, Sarah is the only woman ashore for the flag-raising ceremony and regatta celebrating the birth of Auckland. She will make her home on the shores of the chosen harbour, the beautiful Waitemata. Fate decrees otherwise. Felton's career falters, and his health declines. Widowed young, loyal to Felton in life and death, Sarah will eventually make three voyages around Cape Horn. A natural-born journalist, she keeps diaries of her colonial adventures. Her surviving journals and letters brilliantly cover long voyages under sail, Auckland's birth, the personalities and politics of its capital years. For the first time, Sarah Mathew's story as a respected, tough-minded, steadfast wife is told in full, recognising her invaluable contribution to New Zealand's pioneer narrative"--Back cover.