As well as working as an apprentice surveyor and laying sections and roads for the new settlement, he explored the interior, seeking pastoral land for a growing colony.

In 1846 he undertook extensive journeys with Charles Heaphy and a Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri tohunga named Kehu towards and along the West Coast.

Furthermore, apprentice surveyors, at the time known as "improvers", were in particular demand and Brunner, aided by character references from his employer and other notable residents of Oxford, was duly selected to join the company.

During the voyage to New Zealand, the improvers received further instruction and were tested by having to prepare draft layouts for the new settlement, Brunner's plan being the best of these.

[7] The approximate site for the new settlement had yet to be finalised; initially intended for Banks Peninsula, this location was vetoed by the Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson.

[8] Early the following month a convoy of the company's ships, with Brunner aboard one them, crossed the Cook Strait to Tasman Bay.

A drawback with the Nelson settlement was its lack of pasture and the colony began to appropriate more and more of the plains in the nearby Wairau Valley, much to the displeasure of local Māori.

[13] Brunner lived at Riwaka, a nearby village, and, in addition to carrying out survey work along the Motueka River, helped in the design and building of houses in the area.

[15] In February 1846, Brunner and Kehu, accompanied by Charles Heaphy and William Fox, undertook an expedition southwest of Nelson.

[16] Fox was the resident agent for the New Zealand Company in Nelson and provided the equipment and provisions for the party in addition to paying a salary to Brunner and Heaphy.

[16] Difficult terrain faced them; high mountain ranges topped with snow and ice, steep bush, numerous rivers and gorges.

[20] Brunner was keen for further exploration and Fox persuaded him to scout along the West Coast to the mouth of the Buller River in the hope of finding suitable land for farming.

[3] Their journey began from Golden Bay, and they made their way to West Wanganui where Brunner hired a local Māori, Etau, as a porter for the party.

The expedition hit a snag when the local chief barred their journey south but Brunner and Heaphy mollified him with some tobacco.

They settled into a routine of trekking for a week then camping for the same period to restock their provisions, living off freshwater fish and cabbage- and fern-tree roots.

The party reached the mouth of the Buller on 1 June and made their way to the pā that Brunner and Heaphy had stayed at on their last journey but on arrival, found that it had been abandoned.

With the aid of Kehu (Pitewate and his wife abandoned the party when Brunner became ill), he was able to reach Nelson in June 1848, thus ending after 550 days [1] what he described as his 'Great Journey'.

[29] In Nelson, many people had thought Brunner dead[29] and he readily recognised that he would not have survived his endeavours without the aid of Kehu, writing: "...

[29] He wrote an account of his journey which was first published by Charles Elliott, the editor of the local newspaper the Nelson Examiner, and later, in 1850, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.

[29] Despite this, after a period of recovery he set out in November 1848 with three companions, including Kehu, to discover a quicker route between Nelson and Wairau.

The weather was poor throughout the six-week trip[37] and Brunner was in discomfort for much of the ultimately unsuccessful venture, which determined that the existing route to Wairau was the fastest.

[38] Apart from a short period doing contract surveying for the New Zealand Company in March 1849, Brunner remained unemployed and wrote numerous letters to his contacts.

He returned to Nelson in May 1850[40] and secured full-time employment as a surveyor with the New Zealand Company, but with the proviso that he would be able to take on private work which did not interfere with his duties.

Brunner's employment with the company ceased and he, after writing a letter soliciting for surveying work, was appointed the Government Surveyor with an annual salary of £100 (2014 approximation £8,000).

This was still a low salary for a professional and Brunner was allowed to continue with his architectural commissions, working from an office he had purchased in Nelson.

[42] On 11 October 1855, Brunner married Jane Robson, the 26-year-old daughter[Note 5] of a labourer who had brought his family to New Zealand the previous year.

It was a respectable match for Jane as Brunner was considered a particularly eligible bachelor in Nelson, one of around 45 professionals working in the town of about 1600 people.

Working in much greater comfort than on his last visit to the area in 1848, with other members of his staff he surveyed and laid out sections for what would become the town of Westport.

[49] He also continued to seek private work and contributed to a report on the suitability of the Buller region for settlement and this was published in early 1873.

[54] Brunner, originally called Brunnerton, is a small settlement on the Grey River inland from Greymouth where he first found coal.