New Zealand Pre-Colonial History Timeline

When the Endeavour sailed from England, Captain James Cook had with him sealed orders to discover an immense land mass in the southern hemisphere. Reaching the coast of New Zealand in October 1769, he found islands covered in lush green forest with towering snowcapped mountains and inhabited by native tribal communities. First arriving off the North Island's east coast, as had the Polynesian explorers one thousand years before, Cook eventually turned his ship and sailed north, anti-clockwise around the island before reaching Cook Strait and the South Island.

The first ship to enter Akaroa Harbour sailed from England and anchored off Onuku. Banks Peninsula was inhabited by the Ngai Tahu people, a large tribe of families intertwined by centuries of kinship and alliances living in a relatively peaceful society that stretched throughout the South Island. The serene harbour was to become the scene of more than one catastrophoic event for Ngai Tahu, and the whole region continues to hold great historical and cultural significance for the tangata whenua, people of the land. On May 28 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed at Onuku.

European trading and sealing ships were working off the coasts of New Zealand's South Island, land inhabited by the powerful tribe Ngai Tahu. The coastal region on the east coast north of Banks Peninsula to Lake Ellesmere on the south side of the peninsula was home of the sub-tribe Ngai Turahuriri. Their largest and most important settlement was a fortified pa at Kaiapoi which was a major trading centre for the tribe's valuable pounamu or greenstone trade.

Whaleship Harriet left Sydney in August under the command of Captain Samuel Chace. She was bound for the coast of New Zealand and is the first known whaleship to have sailed into the Bay of Islands. Having successfully killed enough whales to fill her hold with oil, Harriet, Chace, and his crew left for England in early February the following year.

A small number of whaleships were known to be working off the coast of New Zealand. Of those, Enderby's ship Greenwich was the first to register with Sydney custom officials as having arrived from New Zealand on February 15. She had onboard 209 tons of oil and Captain Law reported having seen the whalers Albion, Alexander, Harriet and Venus while there. Venus arrived in Sydney three weeks later and in May the two ships set out in company for England.

At the request of Governor Philip Gidley King of Sydney, a number of sows and boars were shipped from Norfolk Island to Te Pahi of Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands. Several whalers transported pigs to New Zealand to encourage the chief and his Nga Puhi people to establish a herd for eating and trading at the Bay.

Convict James Cavanagh took the opportunity to escape from his ship while it was off Cavalli Islands in northern New Zealand, preferring to take his chances living among cannibal warriors rather than stay as a convict on the ship.

At the end of the year and on his way back to London, Captain Philip Skelton sailed the whaler Ferret into the Bay of Islands. He had on board John Savage an assistant surgeon from Sydney who later published an account of his visit and Maori society and culture. Much of his information was learned from a young Maori man he befriended called Moehanga. Moehanga resolved to see the world and joined Savage for the continuation of his voyage to England. While at the Bay word spread of a European living among the Maori people, but Savage reported seeing only the man's wife and their child with fair hair.

Another young Maori Ruatara, who had several chiefly connections to his Nga Puhi tribe, left New Zealand working as crew on the whaler Argo.

When Lady Nelson arrived at the Bay of Islands, Nga Puhi chief Te Pahi returned home from visiting Norfolk Island and Sydney to thank those who had sent shipments of live hogs to him and his people in New Zealand. Te Pahi was not the only person to disembark from the Lady Nelson while she was at anchor. Convict and crewman George Bruce deserted the ship to start a new life as Te Pahi's son-in-law and another of the earliest settlers in the country. The two men had formed a bond onboard the ship when Te Pahi had taken ill and Bruce had taken care him.

A group of convicts including two women, one with a small child, siezed the ship Venus from her captain and crew at Port Dalrymple in what is now Tasmania, and sailed her to the Bay of Islands. Several people on board the ship went ashore in the Bay and six of those were hung by Te Pahi on behalf of the authorities in Sydney. He had seen for himself how thieves were treated in the colony and knew what punishment their crime carried. Charlotte Badger became the wife of a chief and she and her daughter stayed at the Bay for some years. The fate of the Venus and her convict crew is unknown, but when they limped away from the country they left in their path a trail of
death and deceit that set in motion the deaths of many people for years to come.

George Bruce and his young Maori 'princess' wife left the Bay of Islands on the General Wellesley to help the ship procure timber for spas off North Cape where they would leave the ship and return home over land. Neither would ever see New Zealand again.

The whaleship Commerce called at the Chatham Islands where a Moriori was taken onboard to work as an interpreter when the ship made its next stop at New Zealand. The man had been at the Bay of Islands previously and was able to communicate with the Nga Puhi tribe despite some difference in the languages.

Captain Chase of the sealing ship Pegasus and his first officer William Stewart charted newly discovered Foveaux Strait before sailing up the coast of the South Island with the intention of going through the channel between Bank's Island and the Mainland. Discovering the island was actually a peninsula, Pegasus rounded it and became the first known European vessel to enter Lyttleton Harbour, or Whakaraupo.

The ill-fated Boyd sailed into Whangaroa Harbour in search of spars. Her captain, crew and passengers were set upon by local Maori who killed and feasted on many of them. Only a handful of the ship's contingent of about 70 people survived the attack and the Boyd was burnt to the waterline in the pillaging that followed.

Five whaleships and the sealer Perserverance launched a mistaken attack on the village of Nga Puhi chief Te Pahi in the Bay of Islands as retaliation for the massacre of those on the Boyd.

The sealing vessel Sydney Cove called at Stewart Island where several of the ship's crew were killed and eaten by Murihiku Maori for taking resources without permission from the island's chief. One member of the party, a young ship boy named James Caddell had his life spared through fortunate circumstances and remained with the tribe for many years as the first known European resident on New Zealand's rugged south coast. By 1810 southern Maori were trading potatos for steel and iron with visiting ships.

A general order was issued by Governor Macquarie from Sydney requiring captains to pay a one thousand pound bond in an attempt to stop them from mistreating Maori while they were onboard ships or in New Zealand. In the same year what is now Bluff Harbour was named Port Macquarie, in honour of the Governor.

Having met with fear and resistance from natives in the North Island, Cook was pleased to gain friendship and trust among inhabitants of a large sound at the top of the southern island. On 31 January 1770, in the presence of a Maori chief, Captain James Cook raised the British flag at the summit of tiny Motuara Island and took possession of the mainland in the name of King George III. He named the beautiful sound after the King's consort Queen Charlotte. Finding perfect anchorage in Ship Cove, James Cook and the crew of Endeavour remained there long enough to refresh, refit and replenish before heading back out to the strait and sailing south down the east coast of the South Island. The second exploration and habitation of the islands of New Zealand had begun.

"Jem" a Tahitian man living at the Bay of Islands accused the captains of the whaling ships Jeffersen and King George of cruelty to native New Zealanders. With no one to monitor the captains who often had a short temper and penchant for alcohol, the authorities in Sydney were becoming increasingly concerned for the welfare of Maori while on ships or even in their own land.

"The volume includes a timeline of historical events, biographical entries of notable people in the history of New Zealand, a glossary of Maori terms, and a bibliographic essay."

"Queenie Rikihana-Hyland brings together a collection of her favourite Maori myths and legends, from the creation and the ever-popular mischief-making of Maui, to the great love stories of Hinemoa and Tutanekai, and Turongo and Mahinarangi."