I'm so glad you got to visit us before the earthquake, Judith. I hope you had a great trip. Of course, the city is a lot different now - so I guess you'll have to come see us again
My Dover ancestor who I'm researching at the moment also arrived in Lyttelton, a couple of decades earlier. You may already know it, but there's a great book called White Wings: Fifty Years of Sail in the New Zealand Trade by Henry Brett which has information and pictures of many of the ships used for immigration 1850-1900.