• Purau is located on Banks Peninsula, and is one of the southern bays forming Lyttelton Harbour.

• Purau has a long history of Māori settlement. Ngāti Mamoe lived here prior to Ngāi Tahu settling the bay. There are many Māori burial sites in the area.

• European occupation started in 1843, when the Greenwood brothers started a farm here. They sold to brothers William Barnard and George Rhodes in 1847. When Robert Heaton Rhodes, another of the Rhodes brothers, came to New Zealand in 1850, he took over Purau.

• The drive to Purau takes approximately 45 minutes from Christchurch.

Image credit: Lyttelton Information Centre