Pre-Contact and the Discovery of New Zealand

Maori Origins Polynesians were the first settlers in New Zealand, arriving in the late 1200s. Some time after 1300, possibly around 1500, a number of these people sailed east over some 800 km of open sea to the Chatham Islands. There they became isolated and developed their own distinctive culture. In the 1830s some Māori arrived at the Chatham Islands on a European sailing ship. This was the first time these two peoples, who shared the same Polynesian ancestry, had met in about 300 years. The Chatham Islands people decided to call themselves Moriori – their version of the word Māori.

Abel Tasman Abel Tasman was the first European explorer to sight New Zealand on a voyage in 1642. He was from the Netherlands. The purpose of his voyage was to locate the vast southern continent that many believed existed in the South Pacific. Tasman discovered New Zealand on 13 December 1642, but after a bloody encounter with Māori in Golden Bay, he left without going ashore. Shortly afterwards, a Dutch map maker gave the name Nieuw Zeeland to the land Tasman had discovered.

Tasman’s Voyage

Mapping New Zealand After Tasman’s brief voyage to New Zealand, there was little European contact. Until…. The English navigator Captain James Cook sighted New Zealand on 6 October 1769, and landed at Poverty Bay two days later on his ship The Endeavour. He drew detailed and accurate maps of the country, and wrote about the Māori people. His first encounter with Māori was not successful – a fight broke out in which some Māori were killed. However, after this Cook and his men had friendly contact with Māori.

Captain James Cook

Cook’s Voyages

French Explorers Several other explorers visited New Zealand in the years after Cook’s first visit. Many of them were French. Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville sailed through the dangerous French Pass in the Marlborough Sounds and investigated the east coast of the North Island. Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne anchored his ships in the Bay of Islands in early 1773. But Māori tribal groups in the area were at war, and the presence of the French made matters worse. Marion du Fresne and 25 others were killed.

Death of Marion du Fresne