Modern miracles:

We should confess that it is becoming easier and easier to do this work, although it doesn't always feel like it. Computer and internet technologies enable us to examine catalogues of images, documents, maps and books at many institutions around the world. In some cases actual manuscripts are online, as are many images collections, which can be downloaded and printed. We can now order material in advance at libraries, archives and museums, which saves research time, and these institutions usually allow the use of laptops and portable scanners.

Service at many repositories has improved out of sight in terms of friendliness and willingness to help, which may be a triumph for Kiwihost, and there is often the opportunity to exchange information for mutual benefit. There is also the miracle of Google, which can turn up an answer, often the correct, to almost anything. The ability to use a word processor, to scan text direct into word-processing language, to tabulate vast screeds of information into spreadsheets and databases which can be sorted, collated and interrogated, to email text, images and photographs, and to pay for services and products online, still seem miraculous. Our admiration is boundless for people who did such superb work without any of these advantages.

We have collected and catalogued material which constitutes 150 pages of one-line references. This enables us to find all the references to do with, for example, religion, adultery, gold mining or slavery at the click of a button. We were tempted to publish this spreadsheet as a do-it-yourself history, but Huia Publishers were expecting rather more context from us.

There have been some wonderful boosts to our enthusiasm in the course of writing these books. While writing Volume I, we came across Isabel Olivier's translations of some of the D'Urville expedition records. She is a New Zealander living in France who compiled Research Notes relating to French Explorers in New Zealand between 1985 and 1994. Her translation of Adolphe-Pierre Lesson's journal was a great find for us. In a similar vein, Peter Tremewan of the French Department, University of Canterbury, has page 27been working his way through Father Garin's Letters and Mission Notes, which he obtained from the Marist Archives in Rome. His translations have been a big help for Volume II, although some descendants of Marlborough whalers may not be very happy with Garin's descriptions of their ancestors.

An idle question to Marion Minson at National Library about a Heaphy sketch of the salvage of the Louisa Campbell in 1847, referred to by FG Moore, led us to the Auckland Museum. It holds a large number of Heaphys that we were unaware of, some very important to this area and our book.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown was the phone call from a New Zealander, Jocelyne Dudding, working at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, England. A box of material from Frederick Tuckett's estate, which had been in storage for many decades, had just been opened for the first time. It revealed a sketchbook belonging to Isaac Coates, who resided in Nelson from about 1842 to 1845. He is known for his portraits of Maori, thanks to the work of Marion Minson and Dawn Smith. The images in this sketchbook have incredibly sharp colours, never having been exposed to light. Several are duplicates of the 19 images already known, but there are portraits of 37 Maori of Nelson and Marlborough not seen previously. As a result of our treatment of the Coates images in Volume I, and our undertaking to provide biographical information and whakapapa for some of these "new" ancestors, Pitt Rivers will allow us to reproduce any we wish in Volume II and other publications, at no charge.

This leads us to the question – what else is out there? Two Lindauer paintings – of a local couple, Mr and Mrs Paramena, were found under a bed in Blenheim a few years ago. There may be others as yet undiscovered.

We are looking for sketches which, according to Marlborough newspaper reports, were done in 1888 at the Waikakaho and Cullensville goldfields by Walter Leslie of the Hansard staff and author/artist of Parliamentary Portraits. We are also keen to find Thomas Brunner's sketches of his 1846–1848 expedition to the West Coast.

Thank you very much. We hope that we have encouraged you to think of our rich past from a slightly different perspective, and that you will, of course, be desperate to read Volume II.

Ki a koutou mo tenei wahanga.