Kauri Gold - Susan Parker

Kauri Gold is the story of hotheaded, rebellious Sonja from Dalmatia, and Harry: aristocratic, spoilt, rich.

Sonja is determined to join the fight to expel the Austrian rulers from her beloved Dalmatia, while Harry has killed a man in a duel and is fleeing the law of England. When their paths cross just as Harry is about to embark on a boat for China, their lives become inextricably linked.

By a series of coincidences, they meet again 12,000 miles away on the inhospitable gum fields of New Zealand, where different groups are vying for possession of the land and the gum: the Maori people, its first inhabitants, the later English settlers and the newcomers, the Dalmatians.

Will they be able to overcome the hardship and struggle they face?