NZHistory, New Zealand history online - exploration

Map showing Cook's voyages

This map from 1800 shows the routes taken by Captain James Cook when he visited New Zealand in 1769–70, 1773 and 1777. The main image shows a detail; click on thumbnail to see the full map.

Credit:

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: A new map of the world, published by Laurie & Whittle, 1800

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Charles Heaphy

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.

Born in London, Heaphy was the son of a professional painter and inherited some of his father’s artistic skills. At 17 he was appointed as resident Artist and Surveyor to the New Zealand Company. He arrived in Port Nicholson (Wellington) in late 1839. His portraits of Maori chiefs, including Te Rauparaha, and various landscape paintings provided an important record of this early European contact period. His work was used by the company in its publicity campaign to attract more migrants.

With the Company struggling to provide adequate land for new settlers, Heaphy informed the Company directors of the prospects of exploration into the South Island interior. His 1846 journey with Thomas Brunner was one of the most arduous in the history of New Zealand exploration. The pair spent 560 days journeying from Nelson down the Buller and the West Coast to Arahura. The Heaphy Track in the north-west corner of the South Island is a permanent reminder of this epic journey.

Heaphy’s role as propagandist for the New Zealand Company had made him unpopular with a number of Nelson settlers. By 1847, struggling to make a living, he left for Auckland to take up a job as a draughtsman in the Survey Office of the colonial government. He later became Chief Surveyor. He also served as gold commissioner at Coromandel from November 1852 to June 1853.

In 1859 Heaphy enlisted with the Auckland Rifle Volunteers. He supported the war that broke out in Taranaki in 1860. As preparations were made to invade the Waikato he helped with the survey work for the military road being driven south from Auckland. By July 1863 he was in command of a local militia and became Lieutenant-General Duncan Cameron’s Military Surveyor and Guide to the Forces. In February 1864, while under intense fire, Heaphy went to the aid of a wounded soldier during fighting at Waiari, near Te Awamutu. This act saw him become the first member of an irregular unit to be awarded the Victoria Cross. He received his medal three years later at a parade in Auckland on 11 May 1867. Despite this recognition Heaphy was privately expressing disappointment with his life in New Zealand. This may have reflected his heavy workload as chief surveyor to the central government from January 1864 to December 1865, when he was fully occupied with surveys of confiscated Waikato lands.

In June 1867 Heaphy was elected unopposed as Member of the House of Representatives for Parnell. He achieved little in his two years in Parliament, eventually resigning to take up another government post as commissioner of native reserves. He was appointed a judge of the Native Land Court in 1878. A combination of poor health and government cutbacks led to his retirement in 1880. By June 1881 his health had deteriorated to the extent that he and his wife left for the warmth of Brisbane. He died there in August that year.

Michael Fitzgerald maintains that Heaphy has a secure place in New Zealand art history. His most enduring legacy is the body of topographical watercolours, portrait studies, charts and coastal profiles which he produced, mainly in the service of the New Zealand Company. ‘His unforgettable, distinctly impressionistic "Mt. Egmont, from the southward" has become in a sense a national icon.’ Heaphy’s later years were dominated by financial troubles, overwork and poor health, in stark contrast to the young man who arrived in 1839 full of ‘humour and great optimism.’

See also: biography of Charles Heaphy on the DNZB website

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Further information - Early explorers

This web feature was written by Kynan Gentry and produced by the NZHistory.net.nz team.

British assert sovereignty as French head for Akaroa

HMS Britomart arrived at Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula, a week before a shipload of French colonists landed. The ship’s captain raised the Union Jack to confirm British sovereignty over the area.

In 1838 the commander of the French whaling ship Cachalot made a dubious land purchase from Māori on Banks Peninsula. The Nanto-Bordelaise Company was formed in France with a view to establishing a settlement at Akaroa. In 1839 King Louis-Philippe agreed to provide assistance. Captain Charles François Lavaud, the French representative for the settlement, sailed for New Zealand in April 1840. A month later, the Comte de Paris set off for Akaroa carrying 53 emigrants.

In the period between the land purchase and the departure of the French colonists for Akaroa, the situation in New Zealand had changed. Britain had finally bowed to pressure to colonise New Zealand. The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (including two signatures gathered at Akaroa at the end of May 1840) and Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson’s declaration of sovereignty over the whole country on 21 May confirmed that New Zealand was a British colony.

When Lavaud arrived in the Bay of Islands in July 1840 he was unaware of these changes. While Hobson was friendly enough, he sent HMS Britomart, under the command of Owen Stanley, to observe the French in Akaroa. The warship left the Bay of Islands on 23 July and reached Akaroa on 10 August. When Lavaud arrived five days later he accepted that France could not create a colony without causing hostility. When the Comte de Paris arrived on 17 August, the Union Jack was flying over Akaroa.

British flag flies for first time in NZ

By raising the British Colours at Mercury Bay on Coromandel Peninsula, Cook claimed the area in the name of King George III.

Arthur's Pass 'discovered'

The summit of Arthur’s Pass over the Southern Alps between the headwaters of the Ōtira and Bealey rivers marks the boundary between Canterbury and the West Coast.

The pass was known to Māori, who used it to bring pounamu (jade) across the Southern Alps. It was crossed for the first time by Europeans in 1864 and named after the surveyor Arthur Dobson.

In 1863 Thomas Cass, the Chief Surveyor for Canterbury, asked Arthur Dobson to look for a pass from the Waimakariri River basin to valleys running to the west. In March 1864 Dobson set out with his brother George. At Craigieburn they were joined by their brother Edward. On the advice of the West Coast chief Tarapuhi, the Dobsons travelled up the Waimakariri and into the valley of the Ōtira River. On his return to Christchurch, Arthur included a sketch of the unnamed pass in his report to Cass.

When the West Coast gold rush began in 1865, a committee of businessmen offered £200 to anyone who could find a better pass from Canterbury to the West Coast. George Dobson, sent to examine every option, concluded that ‘Arthur’s’ pass was by far the most suitable for the direct crossing. When the Canterbury Provincial Government began constructing a road from Christchurch to Hokitika, Edward Dobson was put in charge of the project. The road opened to coach traffic in July 1866. It ran over Porters Pass to Cass, up the Waimakariri Valley to Bealey, then over the newly named Arthur’s Pass.

In 1929 Arthur’s Pass National Park was created.

In a tragic sequel to the Dobsons’ explorations, the eldest brother, George, was murdered by the notorious Burgess Gang in 1866. While working on a road near the Grey River he was mistaken for a gold buyer and killed.

Image: Arthur’s Pass (Te Ara)

First recorded European sighting of New Zealand

Towards noon the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted ‘a large land, uplifted high’. His vessel was probably off Punakaiki, so this may have been the peaks of the Paparoa Range.

Tasman sailed from Batavia (today’s Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in August 1642. His expedition had two aims: to establish whether there was a southern sea route to Chile which could be used to prey on Spanish ships; and to exploit the resources of the ‘great southern continent’ which many firmly believed existed between Australia and Cape Horn. The Dutch had already charted Australia’s northern and western coasts, and part of its southern coast. But how far this land extended to the east was still unknown.

Tasman commanded 110 men on two ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen. He discovered Tasmania (as it would later be called) on 24 November, naming it Van Diemen’s Land after the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. He then continued east across the sea which now bears his name.

Also on the expedition was Isaac Gilsemans, who would draw the first European images of New Zealand. His sketches refer to Staten Landt, the name Tasman gave to the country. Tasman’s ships turned north and sailed around Farewell Spit into what is now called Golden Bay, where they anchored on 18 and 19 December. It was here that the Dutch had a violent encounter with local Māori.

Image: detail of image showing Abel Tasman near Three Kings Islands just before leaving New Zealand (See full image on Alexander Turnbull Library's website)

D'Urville sails through French Pass

In a feat of great navigational daring – and after several attempts – the French explorer Jules Sébastien César Dumont d’Urville sailed the Astrolabe from Tasman Bay through French Pass into Admiralty Bay in the Marlborough Sounds.

Image: Dumont d’Urville (DNZB)

Haast begins West Coast expedition

Canterbury Provincial Geologist Julius von Haast led an exploratory expedition in search of an overland route from the east to the west coast of the South Island. The expedition ‘discovered’ a suitable route at the headwaters of the Makarora River.

Haast’s expedition also discovered the extent of the Grey River coalfields and found traces of gold in West Coast rivers. Although the prospector Charles Cameron is credited with ‘discovering’ the pass, Haast was rewarded by having it named after him. He and his expedition reached the pass on 23 January. After crossing it they travelled down the banks of the river that would also be named after him, reaching the coast on 20 February.

The European exploration of the New Zealand interior was a long process. The surveying of inland areas was fundamental to European settlement, defining the boundaries of ownership and identifying resources, usable land and access routes. Surveying and exploration were part of the British colonial vision to claim, tame and name the landscape. European explorers and surveyors viewed the landscape as empty and available. They travelled New Zealand ‘discovering’ territory that had been known to Māori for generations, transplanting familiar names of places from Britain and Europe as they went.

As settlements became more established, the attention of surveyor-explorers increasingly turned to the identification of hinterlands and routes for the transportation of goods. The European discovery of transalpine routes in the 1850s and 1860s opened up new areas for settlement. In the South Island, the search for more land for sheep runs was one of the primary drivers for exploration.

As the pursuit of gold spread from Otago to the West Coast in the early 1860s, many sought new passages through the seemingly impassable gorges and impenetrable bush of the region.

The last great wave of European exploration in New Zealand was undertaken in the 1860s in the name of science. Between the late 1830s and the 1870s men such as Haast, Ernst Dieffenbach, Ferdinand von Hochstetter and Andreas Reischek covered much of the country, mapping its geology. As Canterbury Provincial Geologist from 1861, Haast led a number of comprehensive surveys of the province, sprinkling Germanic names over the landscape as he went.

Exploring New Zealand's interior

Once the early European explorers had determined the basic outline of the New Zealand islands, the few remaining coastal puzzles were solved by visiting sealers, whalers and those engaged in the early timber and flax trade. In 1804 the American sealer Owen F. Smith discovered Foveaux Strait, disproving James Cook’s idea that Stewart Island might be joined to the South Island. Five years later, while trying to sail between what Cook had called Banks Island and the South Island’s east coast, Captain Chase of the Pegasus discovered that the ‘island’ was in fact a peninsula.

The European ‘discovery’ of the interior would be a much longer process. The surveying and exploration of inland areas was fundamental to European settlement, defining the boundaries of ownership and identifying resources, useable land and access routes. Recent scholarship has also argued that surveying and exploration were equally at the heart of the British colonial vision to claim, tame and name the landscape. Explorers and surveyors viewed the landscape as empty and available, and travelled New Zealand, transplanting familiar names as they went, and ‘discovering’ territory known to Maori for generations.

Mt Egmont from the southward, Charles Heaphy

Much of the artistic work of the early explorers was also done to encourage settlement. It presented a familiar landscape, rich in material resources, and most importantly, available. Parallels drawn between areas in Britain and in New Zealand were reflected in the choice of place names, with Maori names replaced by familiar European ones.

The earliest European explorers of New Zealand’s interior were the early missionaries. On visits to New Zealand in 1814–15 and 1820, for example, Samuel Marsden penetrated well inland; his 1820 journey was a precursor to a long series of missionary journeys by men such as Henry Williams, Octavius Hadfield, and most importantly William Colenso. In 1844 Bishop George Selwyn walked from Wellington to Auckland.

The New Zealand Company played a key role in the settlement of New Zealand. In its reconnaissance for suitable settlement locations, large tracts of land were explored; Frederick Tuckett’s selection of the site for Dunedin followed investigations that ranged from Nelson to Bluff. The lack of viable transport routes between many of the southern settlements and the northern gateway posed major challenges, and by the late 1840s efforts were being made to identify new routes. The 1846 journey by Thomas Brunner and Charles Heaphy was one of the most arduous in the history of New Zealand exploration, the pair journeying from Nelson down the Buller River and the West Coast to Arahura and back over 560 days.

As settlements became more established, the attention of surveyor-explorers increasingly turned to the identification of hinterlands and routes for the transportation of goods. Transport routes in particular were crucial, and only following the European discovery of trans-alpine routes in the 1850s and 1860s could many areas be settled. In the South Island, the search for ungranted land for sheep-runs was one of the primary factors in exploration, leading inadvertently to the discovery of transport routes in both Canterbury and Otago. The 1860s was also a period of unbustled activity for surveyors, who in the process of delineating boundaries and confirming property rights, made discoveries such as Arthur’s Pass and Browning’s Pass.

Australian gold rush migrants

Gold motivated surveying and exploration in the 1860s. After the initial discovery of gold in Otago in May 1861, men combed the ranges for the precious metal. Prospector-explorers such as Patrick Caples and Alphonse Barrington made extensive journeys into the backcountry. The discovery of gold on the West Coast in the early 1860s saw throngs find passages through the seemingly impassable gorges and impenetrable bush.

The last great wave of European exploration in New Zealand was undertaken in the 1860s in the name of pure science. Men such as Ernst Dieffenbach, Julius von Haast, Ferdinand von Hochstetter and Andreas Reischek covered much of the country, mapping its geology on a scale not previously seen. As Canterbury Provincial Geologist in 1860, for example, von Haast had the opportunity to conduct seemingly comprehensive surveys of the province, sprinkling Geman names over the landscape as he went. Hochstetter and Dieffenbach undertook similar work around Auckland and Nelson, and the central North Island, respectively, while Reischek wandered alone in remote parts of both islands.

Further information:

General

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand entries on European exploration, Geological exploration and transforming the landscape. These entries also look at other key individuals in the early exploration of the New Zealand's interior.
A surveyor's basic tools. Discusses typical nineteenth century surveying equipment as would have been used in the interior exploration of New Zealand.
Pioneer land surveyors of New Zealand - Offers a brief biographical details on over 300 pioneering surveyors in New Zealand's early European history.

Missionary explorers

William Colenso (1811-1899) - Printer, missionary, explorer, naturalist, politician

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Colenso.
Early sketches of New Zealand by Colenso.
Colenso and the beginnings of printing in New Zealand

Samuel Marsden (1765 - 1838) - chaplain, magistrate, explorer, missionary

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Marsden.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Marsden.

George Augustus Selwyn (1809 - 1878) - missionary, explorer, bishop

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Selwyn.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Selwyn.

Surveyors

Frederick Tuckett (1807-1876) - Principal surveyor of the New Zealand Company. Surveyor of the Company's Otago settlement.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Tuckett.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Tuckett.

Frederick Carrington (1808-1901) - Principal surveyor of the Plymouth Company. Often called 'the founder of Taranaki'.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Carrington.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Carrington.
From Plymouth to New Plymouth, a wonderful site detailing the life, times and work of Carrington.

Captain Joseph Thomas (1821?-1874) - Surveyor of the site of the Canterbury settlement.

Great site looking at Joseph Thomas and the design of Christchurch.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Thomas.
Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Thomas

William Mein Smith (1799-1869) - Surveyor and artist. New Zealand Company Surveyor-General, and surveyor of the Wellington settlement.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Smith.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Smith.

John Rochford (1832-1893) - Surveyor and engineer, principally remembered for his surveys of the West Coast of the South Island.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Rochford.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Rochford.

Stephenson Percy Smith (1840 - 1922) - Surveyor, ethnologist, writer. Percy Smith made significant contributions in all of these areas, but as a surveyor, he is remembered principally for his work around New Plymouth and Auckland.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Smith.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Smith.
Percy Smith and the Scenery Preservation Commission.

Also check out entries on:

Gerhard Mueller (1834/1835? - 1918)
Charles William Adams (1840 - 1918)
John Holland Baker (1841 - 1930)
Laurence Cussen (1843 - 1903)
William Australia Graham (1841 - 1916)
Thomas Cass (1817-1895)

Explorer-surveyors

William Fox (1812? - 1893) - Explorer, premier, painter, social reformer. As an explorer, Fox is remembered for his 1843 journey into Wairarapa, and his 1846 explorations of the Buller Gorge, Banks Peninsula and Otago.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Fox.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Fox.
Myers family history website gives a brief overview of Fox's career as an explorer and also examples paintings he did in the field.

Johann Karl Ernst Dieffenbach (1811-1855) - Explorer, naturalist, linguist. As a surveyor for the New Zealand Company, Dieffenbach made extensive journeys into the interior of the North Island, exploring Tongariro, Taupo, Waikato, and Whaingaroa.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Dieffenbach.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Dieffenbach.

Johann Franz Julius von Haast (1822-1887) - Explorer, surveyor, writer, geologist. Haast is principally remembered for his extensive scientific explorations of the Nelson, and later Canterbury districts in his capacity as Provincial Geologist.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on von Haast.
Christchurch City Libraries' site on Haast and the Canterbury Museum.
Art New Zealand article on Haast's collaboration with John Gully in the exploration and painting of the Canterbury glaciers. Contains some beautiful images.

Edward (1816/1817? - 1908) and Arthur (1841 - 1934) Dobson - Surveyors, explorers, engineers.

As Provincial Engineer for Canterbury, Edward Dobson's contribution to exploration principally took place during his development of the Canterbury rail network. As assistant and later Chief Surveyor for Nelson, his son Arthur undertook extensive surveys between Nelson and Westport, including Authur's Pass.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on the Dobsons.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on the Dobsons.

Charles Heaphy (1820-1881) - Explorer, surveyor, artist, draughtsman

As draftsman and artist with the New Zealand Company, Heaphy is principally remembered for his reconnaissance survey up the west coast of the North Island and investigations of a site for the establishment of Nelson. As Chief Surveyor to the General Government, at Auckland, his main task was the surveying of land confiscated at the close of the New Zealand Wars.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Heaphy.
Wellington City Libraries' transcript of Heaphy's 'Notes on Port Nicholson' (1839), describing the Wellington region and his experience of local Maori.
Charles Heaphy on NZHistory

Thomas Brunner (1821?-1874) - Surveyor and explorer.

Brunner is remembered most for his epic 1846-48 exploration of the South Island.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Brunner.
Transcript of Brunner's The Great Journey: Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Interior of the Middle Island of New Zealand , 1846-1848.

John Turnbull Thomson (1821 - 1884) - Surveyor, engineer, explorer, artist, writer. As Chief Surveyor of Otago, Thomson was responsible for much of the survey of the lower South Island. He also prepared a complete scheme for the development of Otago Harbour. He later became Surveyor General for New Zealand and established the Department of Lands and Survey.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Thomson.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Thomson.

James Mackay (1831 - 1912) - Explorer, surveyor. As a Commissioner in the Native Land Purchase Department, Mackay was responsible for the purchase and surveying of many chunks of the South Island. Later government positions allowed him to survey many areas of the North Island.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Mackay.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Mackay.

Ferdinand Ritter von Hochstetter (1829-1884) - Geologist, surveyor, writer. Hocstetter's principal contributions include his geological survey of the central districts of Auckland Province, and his later survey of the Nelson Province's 'mineral belt'.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on von Hochstetter.
The isthmus of Auckland with its extinct volcanoes, a beautiful example of work undertaken by Hochstetter and his contemporaries.

James Hector (1834-1907) - Explorer, geologist, and administrator. As an explorer and surveyor, Hector is principally remembered for his geological survey of Otago and parts of Westland. He was also Director of the Geological Survey Department of New Zealand.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Hector.
Geological Society of New Zealand entry on Hector Day.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Hector.

Donald Sutherland (1843/1844? - 1919) - Soldier, explorer. Lone exploration seeming to be his metier, Sutherland is primarily remembered for his exploration of the lower reaches of Westland when few Europeans knew much of the locality.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Sutherland.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Sutherland.

Arthur Paul Harper (1865 - 1955) - mountaineer, explorer, conservationist

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Harper.
An encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966 entry on Harper.

Also check out entries on:

Charles Edward Douglas (1840 - 1916)
Nathanael Chalmers (1830 - 1910)
Alphonse J. Barrington (fl. 1863 - 1864)

Others

Edward Shortland (1812?-1893) - Scholar, linguist, administrator, doctor.

Dictionary of New Zealand biography entry on Shortland.
Transcript of Shortland's Maori Religion and Mythology a typical example of the work of early ethnologists, linguists and maori scholars.