The Navigation to Aotearoa

The Navigation to Aotearoa

We mark the 250-year anniversary of Captain James Cook’s arrival (November 1769) to Te Whanganui a Hei (Mercury Bay, Coromandel) on the ship HMS Endeavour in November 2019. The Endeavour’s route to Aotearoa (New Zealand) having taken him through Tahiti (inclusive of Ra’iatea) in April 1769 where they spent 3 months with the local Polynesian people.

It was 819 years prior in 950 AD, the great South Pacific Navigator Kupe arrived also from Ra’iatea (the traditional name of Havai’í homeland of the Maori people) to Aotearoa. Ra’iatea is now the second largest society of islands after Tahiti in French Polynesia.

Kupe and Cook both making significant journeys landing Aotearoa many centuries apart land. Kupe landing in Whitianga a Kupe (original name for Whitianga in Mercury Bay) and Cook now named Cooks Beach in Mercury Bay.

Kupe’s journey been the predecessor to the Great Migration of the Maori people to Aotearoa in waka (canoes) such as Takitimu using navigation like stars, bird migration & ocean currents. This migration taking place around 1250 AD.

Te Whanganui of Hei translates as the Great Bay of Hei. The people of Ngati Hei are the descendants of Hei. Their historical migration from Ra’iatea then making their home in Hahei.

Cook and his crew spent 12 days in the Coromandel Peninsula (named after HMS Coromandel arrived Aotearoa in 1820 and the original name been ) and landed at the  now named Cooks Beach (one of the 4 landing point in Aotearoa) and raised the English flag and without consultation of the Ngati Hei (Maori tribe) claimed Aotearoa for Kind and Country.

Of interest is the recording of the first Powhiri (Maori welcome ceremony) by the Ngati Hei to Cook at Wharekaho, north of Whitianga.