Early explorers

Page 1 – Introduction

Murderers Bay, 1642
Murderers Bay, 1642

The romance and sheer challenge of getting to the far-flung islands of New Zealand have made the exploration of this land a popular topic of study. There are many websites on both the Polynesian discovery and European rediscovery of New Zealand, so this feature is a carefully selected and annotated collection of website links.

For each of the following sections - Polynesian and European explorers - we have prefaced the links with a brief overview of the topic, including some discussion of the differing interpretations historians and others make regarding the discovery and exploration of this country.

How to cite this page

'Early explorers', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/explorers/explorers, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 11-Aug-2014