We were discussing
New Zealand in the 19th century without the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, or some-other close British settlement, sovereignty or control. It isn't particularly relevant to this thread, but I speculated that if another power or group was able to plant a colony or two in the South Island, that could be an interesting POD. For reason that the South Island was incredibly lightly populated by Maori compared to the North Island and any non British boots on the ground could make for an interesting alternative.
Anyway, so the question is, how plausible is it for a country, organisation or group of people to decide to plant a colony in New Zealand in the period 1800-1830. Please do not concern yourself with political issues here along the lines of "Would Britain allow it", as whilst that is important, I am more interested in knowing if it would be practical for physical reasons.
If you want to discuss the political side of it,
check that original thread
Time range
1800-1830 - European and American ships visited regularly during this period, there were small settlements for whaling or missions, so people were generally aware of each other. This is also before Britain started asserting close control e.g. the United Tribes. Or before British groups started planning large settlements, e.g the New Zealand Company, the Free Church.
Location
I suggest the South Island, excluding the Nelson-Marlborough area, at the tip of the South Island as they were more heavily populated and integrated into North Island Maori society. That still leaves a lot of places.
The settlement will need to be coastal and it is likely that any good coastal settlement point will have either a permanent or seasonal Maori settlement. The Maori settlement will likely be rather small, low hundreds at most, but there may others nearby.
So, viability.
I would imagine that the proposed European settlements would be very small initially, like OTL and then if they work/or have support, they may grow bigger. Especially if gold or some other OTL economic resource is exploited.
How much would it cost, what kind of effort would it take for such a settlement? Assuming that the proposed colony cannot easily rely on Australia like IOTL, although they could still conduct some trade I would imagine.
Are there examples of small, relatively unsupported colonies elsewhere in the early 19th century?