Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Enter Europe
NZ became an official British colony in 1840, but the first authenticated contact between
Maori and the outside world took place almost two centuries earlier in 1642, in Golden Bay
at the top of the South Island. Two Dutch ships sailed from Indonesia, to search for south-
ern land and anything valuable it might contain. The commander, Abel Tasman, was in-
structed to pretend to any natives he might meet 'that you are by no means eager for pre-
cious metals, so as to leave them ignorant of the value of the same'.
When Tasman's ships anchored in the bay, local Maori came out in their canoes to make
the traditional challenge: friends or foes? Misunderstanding this, the Dutch challenged
back, by blowing trumpets. When a boat was lowered to take a party between the two
ships, it was attacked. Four crewmen were killed. Tasman sailed away and did not come
back; nor did any other European for 127 years. But the Dutch did leave a name: 'Nieuw
Zeeland' or 'New Sealand'.
The Ministry for Culture & Heritage's history website (
www.nzhistory.net.nz
)
is an excellent source of info
on NZ history.
Contact between Maori and Europeans was renewed in 1769, when English and French
explorers arrived, under James Cook and Jean de Surville. Relations were more sympathet-
ic, and exploration continued, motivated by science, profit and great power rivalry. Cook
made two more visits between 1773 and 1777, and there were further French expeditions.
Unofficial visits, by whaling ships in the north and sealing gangs in the south, began in
the 1790s. The first mission station was founded in 1814, in the Bay of Islands, and was
followed by dozens of others: Anglican, Methodist and Catholic. Trade in flax and timber
generated small European-Maori settlements by the 1820s. Surprisingly, the most numer-
ous category of Western visitor was probably American. New England whaling ships fa-
voured the Bay of Islands for rest and recreation; 271 called there between 1833 and 1839
alone. To whalers, 'rest and recreation' meant sex and drink. Their favourite haunt, the
little town of Kororareka (now Russell) was known to the missionaries as 'the hellhole of
the Pacific'. New England visitors today might well have distant relatives among the local
Maori.
