For New Zealand books (coming from the perspective of growing up here, so I haven't read them in a couple of decades!) - - Whale Rider is set in more modern times - "No one went to town" by Phyllis Johnston is set during the initial farming/European settlement period of NZ. It was written a wee while ago, so no idea how it holds up these days but I loved it as a kid. There's a few books that follow after in that series. She also wrote a book called "Then there were nine" in a similar time period.