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Famous Explorers

James Cook, Roald Amundsen, Edmund Hillary and Yuri Gagarin had the spirit of adventure to explore land, ocean and space. This topic covers the age of exploration, and voyaging, famous explorers, and Kupe’s discovery of New Zealand. SCIS No. 1831898

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James Cook stamp

James Cook stamp

James Cook features in The A to Z of New Zealand stamp series produced by New Zealand Post in 2008.

Polynesian explorers

Article about early Polynesian explorers.

Explorers

Place names by Abel Tasman

Place names by Abel Tasman

New Zealand, Cape Maria van Diemen, Three Kings Island, Tasman Bay, Abel Tasman Park, Murderers Bay: with Peter Dowling, revising editor of AW Reed's dictionary of New Zealand place names.

Abel Janszoon Tasman

Biography of Abel Tasman.

[McDonald, James Ingram] 1865-1935 :Thomas Brunner, the explorer. [ca 1926]

[McDonald, James Ingram] 1865-1935 :Thomas Brunner, the explorer. [ca 1926]

Head and shoulders portrait of Brunner in middle age, dressed in a suit Based on an earlier photograph, ca 1870? Note on mount: Early New Zealand. Quantity: 1 watercolour(s). Physical Descript...

Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne

Biography of Marc Joseph Marion du Fresne.

Tapa whenua – naming places

Sometimes entire Polynesian traditions were taken to new islands.

Maui

Maui was a legendary Maori god and explorer who fished up Aotearoa New Zealand.

William Colenso

Biography of William Colenso.

Dieffenbach’s account of New Zealand

Dieffenbach’s account of New Zealand

Ernst Dieffenbach, a German, spent two years exploring parts of New Zealand for the New Zealand Company. He then published this wide-ranging description of the natural features, including some of t...

Cook’s 1773 map of New Zealand

Cook’s 1773 map of New Zealand

Abel Tasman had charted only the western coastline of New Zealand, from about Punakaiki to the North Cape, and left open the possibility that the land was part of a great, unknown southern continen...

Amy Johnson, the first female to fly from Britain to Australia solo.

Woman in space

It's been fifty years since the Soviet space programme sent the first woman into space. Valentina Tereshkova was 26 at the time and became a national hero and an icon for gender equality.

Captain Roald Amundsen and his companions

Captain Roald Amundsen and his companions

Photograph of the first men to reach the South Pole.

Julius Haast’s geological sketch map of Canterbury

Julius Haast’s geological sketch map of Canterbury

Showing a geological sketch map of the Province of Canterbury produced in ink and watercolour on tracing paper by Julius Haast

Joseph Banks

Biography of Joseph Banks.

William O'Leary, also known as Arawata Bill

William O'Leary, also known as Arawata Bill

William O'Leary, also known as Arawata Bill, standing next to a horse laden with sacking bags. He is dressed in a suit and waders. Taken in 1938 by Thelma Kent. Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s).

Yuri Gagarin

It's 50 years ago today Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly into space.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Robert Falcon Scott

Copy of a photograph of Captain Robert Falcon Scott by H G Ponting with a caption `Captain Scott at the ice-crack'. Photograph taken 1950 by an Evening Post staff photographer. Quantity: 1 b&w ori...

Hillary reaches South Pole

Hillary reaches South Pole

Pathe celebrate news of Sir Edmund Hillary reaching the South Pole.

NZ mountaineer inspired by the first woman to climb Mt Everest

NZ mountaineer inspired by the first woman to climb Mt Everest

The first woman to conquer Everest Junko Tabei of Japan has died from cancer, aged 77. The first New Zealand woman to climb the peak recalls Ms Tabei's inspiration.

According to tribal narratives, Kupe was the first Polynesian to discover New Zealand.

Endeavour

This is a detailed view of Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour. At 32 metres long, 7.6 metres broad and weighing 368 tons, this was a relatively small ship by today’s standards. It left Plymouth, En...

Ernest Henry Shackleton

Ernest Henry Shackleton

This is a studio portrait of Ernest Henry Shackleton, one of last century's greatest Antarctic explorers. Initially, he accompanied Captain Scott on his first Antarctic expedition (1901-04) but tod...

Roald Amundsen

This head and shoulders portrait is of the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Amundsen commanded the first successful expedition to reach the South Pole. He set out in October 1911 and reached the ...

Top five female explorers

Female explorers had to climb more than mountains to reach their professional peak.

Christopher Columbus

An article about Christopher Columbus.

Aboriginal Australians: the first explorers

Aboriginal Australians descend directly from modern explorers who discovered Australia about 50,000 years ago.

World explorers

Biographies of various world explorers from Columbus to Neil Armstrong.

Article about Zheng He.

Famous explorers

A list of famous explorers.

Famous explorers

A gallery of images related to famous explorers.

Famous explorers

A list of facts and information about famous Elizabethan explorers.

Article about Sir Edmund Hillary.

First crossings

Promo for 5 of New Zealand’s first crossings.

Biography of Neil Armstrong

A biography of Neil Armstrong.

Jacques Cousteau centennial: what he did, why he matters

Article explaining why Jacques Cousteau was such a legend.

The ages of exploration

Information about famous explorers and the ships and tools they used.

Exploration timelines

Timeline of women explorers.

The travels of Ibn Battuta

Article about Ibn Battuta’s medieval travels.

Daniel Boone was an American frontiersmen and explorer.

Female explorers

A gallery of images related to female explorers.

A woman who walked 1,700 miles across Australia.

Video about Hernan Cortes and the Aztec empire.

Early Australian explorers – traversing the continent

Early Australian explorers.

Space exploration

A handy interactive map shows what lies ahead in space exploration over the next decade.

A short biography of explorer Vasco da Gama.

Explorers A to Z

List of famous explorers.

The discovery of New Zealand

The discovery of New Zealand

The chart of New Zealand as recorded by Captain Cook.

Fossils collected by Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Fossils collected by Ferdinand von Hochstetter

Showing fossils collected by Ferdinand Hochstetter

Charles Heaphy

Photograph of Charles Heaphy.

Captain Robert Scott

Captain Robert Scott

This photograph shows Captain Robert Falcon Scott writing at a table in his den at Cape Evans Antarctica during the British Antarctic ('Terra Nova') Expedition of 1910-1913. Scott is surrounded by ...

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Pictured here is Sir Ranulph Fiennes, also known as the ‘the world’s greatest living explorer’. Fiennes was the first man to travel overland to both the North and South Poles and the first to walk ...

Maui

Māui is renowned for fishing up the North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui (the fish of Māui) from his canoe, which later became the South Island. The tale is depicted in this ink drawing by Wilhelm Dittmer...

Australia’s 50 greatest explorers

Discover the stories of adventurers who pushed beyond the boundaries to explore our world.

Captain Cook's ship Endeavour

A tour of the replica of Captain Cook's ship Endeavour.

Early New Zealand history In pictures

Two cartoons featuring explorers Maui and Kupe.

James Cook: ocean explorer

Video about Captain James Cook’s voyages.

Age of exploration

Video about the age of exploration.

Famous New Zealanders

Famous New Zealanders

Peter Jackson, Lorde and Richie McCaw are famous nationally and internationally. Discover resources about famous New Zealand explorers, heroes, inventors, scientists, singers, writers, sportsmen, s...

Antarctica

Antarctica is our remotest continent and home to the South Pole. It is covered in ice and has two seasons, winter and summer. Some scientists living in Antarctica study its environment, sea-life — ...

Space Exploration

Space Exploration

The first orbit around Earth (Sputnik 1) the first moon landing (Apollo 11) marked the beginning of space travel and exploration. Discover types of rockets, space stations, astronauts, space techn...

First Encounters

First Encounters

This topic explores the first meetings between Polynesians cultures (particularly Māori) and European explorers. The resulting cultural interactions had a profound impact on indigenous societies an...

Pacific Navigation

Pacific Navigation

This topic focuses on Polynesian explorers and the extraordinary navigation skills they used to cross the Pacific Ocean. Also included are the navigational tools and techniques used by European Pac...

Leaders and People

Leaders and People

Sir Peter Blake, Mao Zedong and Nelson Mandela led people in very different ways. Explore what makes a leader famous and the many areas of leadership, including New Zealand, science, politics, spor...