Kerikeri is the oldest unbroken European settlement site in Aotearoa/New Zealand, and it nestles alongside several contemporary (and earlier) Maori sites on the Kerikeri River. Today, the Kerikeri Basin, which acted as a meeting pool for the country's two major cultures, is a site of potential World Heritage status.

This account tells of Maori and Pakeha in a particular place at a time of radical change. Key historical figures emerge: Hongi Hika, Hone Heke, Rewa, Titore, Waikato, Samuel Marsden, Thomas Kendall, Marianne Williams, George Grey. For a period the two cultures shared a middle ground - finding ways to engage. By the 1850s, only James Kemp remained at the mission, and Maori were living under a new dispensation. Land at the Bay of Islands and throughout New Zealand was passing steadily into the newcomers' hands.

Kerikeri is a major heritage site, in which interest is growing. This is excellent local history, with strong Maori-Pakeha emphasis and is a good source book for schools.