Rachel Bentley arrived in Port Chalmers with her uncle, John Rae, and her brother George, on the 'Phoebe Dunbar' in July 1850. She was one of seven children born in Oban, Scotland - hence the 'Oban' map and township in
Broad Bay. The uncle had bought an allotment at Halfway Bush, where they lived in a roughly-built hut in the midst of thick bush. In 1850 Rachel took work as a servant in an accommodation house in Sawyers Bay. John was working in a nearby sawmill and boarded at the accommodation house. After two years he asked her to marry him. In September 1852, John picked her up in a rowboat from Port Chalmers, and rowed her all the way to Dunedin for the ceremony - a nine mile row. She was frozen through by the time they arrived. However, they made it to the ceremony with the Free Church Minister, Dr Thomas Burns. William was born in Poort Chalmers in July 1853. While John worked all over the area, Rachel practised her domestic skills. The second child was born in 1856, Sarah. Soon after, they bought their property in Broad Bay. There, left alone a good deal while John found work in the district, Rachel relied on her resources to keep the house John had built running smoothly. She milked their cow, shot kaka and pigeons and made cheese and butter. At nights she sewed linen and clothes for her growing number of children. And there were visits by local Maori, on their way to Otakou - including Chief Taiaroa, then an old man, who expressed a liking for a crocheted coverlet Rachel had put on the mantlepiece above the fire. She gave it to him as he left in the morning. They moved south to farm in 1877, after the death of their son William in 1876. She died 28 June 1892, aged 59.