Exploration

Events In History

10 November 1880

Sutherland Falls 'discovered'

The renowned backwoodsman Donald Sutherland 'discovered' the waterfall that bears his name near what is now the Milford Track – New Zealand’s best-known walking track. Read more...
12 March 1864

Arthur's Pass 'discovered'

Arthur, George and Edward Dobson were searching for a route between Canterbury and the West Coast that the chief Tarapuhi had told them about. Read more...
8 January 1863

Haast begins West Coast expedition

In January 1863, geologist Julius von Haast led an expedition in search of an overland route from the east to the west coast of the South Island. Read more...
7 November 1848

The Acheron arrives to survey New Zealand waters

Captained by John Lort Stokes, the paddle steamer Acheron spent four years charting the New Zealand coastline. Read more...
10 August 1840

British proclaim sovereignty as French head for Akaroa

HMS Britomart arrived at Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula, a week before a shipload of French colonists landed there. The Britomart's captain raised the Union Jack to confirm the British claim to sovereignty over the area. Read more...
28 January 1827

D'Urville sails through 'French Pass'

In a feat of navigational daring – and after several attempts – the French explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville sailed the Astrolabe from Tasman Bay through the narrow ‘French Pass’ into Admiralty Bay in the Marlborough Sounds. Read more...
9 November 1769

Cook observes transit of Mercury

James Cook helped his astronomer Charles Green observe the transit of Mercury at Te Whanganui-o-Hei (Mercury Bay), Coromandel Peninsula. Read more...
6 October 1769

Young Nick sights land

Ship’s boy Nicholas Young received a gallon of rum and had a headland named after him for being the first aboard HMS Endeavour to spot land in the south-west Pacific. Read more...
18 December 1642

First known encounter between Māori and Europeans

Abel Tasman’s Dutch East India Company expedition had the first known European contact with Māori. It did not go well. Read more...
13 December 1642

First recorded European sighting of New Zealand

Towards noon the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted 'a large land, uplifted high', possibly the peaks of the Paparoa Range behind Punakaiki. Read more...

Articles

Exploring New Zealand's interior

After charting the coastline, European surveying and exploration of the interior were a fundamental part of the settlement process, defining the boundaries of ownership and identifying resources, useable land and access routes.
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Page 1 - Exploring New Zealand's interior After charting the coastline, European surveying and exploration of the interior were a fundamental part of the settlement process, defining the boundaries of ownership and

Early explorers

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Page 1 - Further informationRecommended links for information about early explorers to New

Biographies

Heaphy, Charles
The multi-faceted Charles Heaphy made quite an impact on colonial New Zealand as an artist, explorer, soldier and colonial administrator. He was the first colonial soldier to win the Victoria Cross.
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Brunner, Thomas
Thomas Brunner’s exploits in the north and west of the South Island between 1846 and 1848 were the greatest single piece of overland exploration in New Zealand's European history.
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