Pages tagged with: explorers

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.

The romance and sheer challenge of getting to New Zealand have made the Polynesian discovery and European rediscovery of these islands popular topics of study.

Spanish and the Portuguese had an active presence in the Pacific from the early 16th century, but there is no firm evidence of Europeans reaching New Zealand before Abel Tasman in 1642.

Photo of Charles Heaphy wearing the Victoria Cross he was awarded in 1867

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

The dutch explorer Abel Tasman is officially recognised as the first European to ‘discover’ New Zealand in 1642. His men were the first Europeans to have a confirmed encounter with Maori.

Tuati was the first New Zealander to see Antarctica when he was part of the United States Exploration Expedition led by Charles Wilkes

New Zealander Alexander Francis Henry von Tunzelmann is sometimes credited as being the first person to set foot on the Antarctic mainland

In 1880 the renowned 'backwoodsman' Sutherland had 'discovered' the waterfall that bears his name on what is now the Milford Track – New Zealand’s best-known walking track.

The following month the French explorer and 24 of his crew were killed in an act of utu (revenge) by local Ngāti Pou. In the reprisals that followed, the French killed up to 250 Māori.

Recommended for a Victoria Cross after rescuing a soldier while under fire in 1864, Heaphy was eventually awarded the VC in 1867 - the only one awarded to a member of New Zealand's colonial forces.

As James Cook rounded the northern tip of the North Island from east to west, the French explorer Jean François Marie de Surville was in the same waters, sailing in the opposite direction. A storm prevented any chance of an historic meeting.

The Ngāti Kahu chief Ranginui  died at sea after being taken from Doubtless Bay by the French explorer de Surville

This journey was part of Thomas Brunner's epic 1846-48 exploration of the South Island. He was accompanied by Kehu, a Ngati Tumatakokiri Maori, and Charles Heaphy, a draftsman and artist with the New Zealand Company.

The Endeavour's arrival at Cape Turnagain confirmed that the North Island was indeed an island, and not part of a fabled great southern continent.

Cook sighted Banks Peninsula from the Endeavour. The following day he concluded it was an island and named this after the expedition's botanist, Joseph Banks.

At Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, 10 men serving on the ship accompanying Cook's Resolution died at the hands of Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne.