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.
During his second voyage to New Zealand James Cook released a ewe and a ram from the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) in Queen Charlotte Sound. They survived only a few days, an inauspicious start to this country's long association with sheep.
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.
Ship's boy Nicholas Young received a gallon of rum and had Young Nick's Head named in his honour for being the first aboard the Endeavour to spot land.
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.
Robert McNab, historian and minister of lands in the Liberal government, was closely associated with the development of the Ship Cove monument in Queen Charlotte Sound. This is where James Cook spent most time in New Zealand throughout his voyages.
This engraving of a Māori family in Dusky Sound, Firodland, is from a drawing made by William Hodges during Captain James Cook's second visit to New Zealand in the mid-1770s. The image depicts Māori as 'noble savages', a term associated with the romantic philosophy popular in this period.
