The arrival of the French, creating at Akaroa a centre of European population both larger and permanent than the whaling stations, not only led to a fairly frequent movement of whaling schooners between Wellington and Banks Peninsula, but attracted attention to the district as a possible site for British settlement. The first examination of Port Cooper and the adjoining plains for this purpose was made by Captain E. Daniel and G. Duppa in August 1841. seeking a site for the Nelson settlement for the New Zealand Company, they left Wellington on 28 June, and visited only Port Cooper and Port Levy, having no time to go further. In his report to Colonel William Wakefield, chief agent of the New Zealand Company, Captain Daniel stated that a road to the plains could be made through a gap on the hills on the western sides of the harbour between the peninsula and the snowy mountains. There was a ‘splendid district of flat land...covered with luxuriant vegetation’. The soil was of excellent quality, and free from swamps of any importance. Duppa had gone eight miles (13 km) up one of the rivers draining the plain — either the Heathcote or the Avon. Several groves of trees were scattered on the plain, these groves becoming more numerous nearer the mountains. ‘The whole district backed by these stupendous Alps affords a scene of surpassing beauty’, Daniel added. ‘"I do not believe a more splendid field for colonisation than the one I have endeavoured to describe is likely to be met with".