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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 Pacific voyages of discovery SCIS no. 1869064

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Pacific voyaging

Pacific voyaging

This painting by John Bevan Ford, ‘Peoples of the Pacific’, is part of his ‘Ngā tohunga waka’ (expert navigators) series. It depicts various types of waka (canoes) used in Pacific voyaging, and sta...

A model of a Cook Island’s vaka or outrigger canoe.

A model of a vaka taurua or double-hulled waka.

Mattang. Stick chart. Thin slats bound by twisted fibre string with small cream cowrie shells attached as islands. Roughly square in outline.

Artwork of an eel from an installation called Polynesian navigators.

Discovering the Pacific

How was the Pacific discovered by Polynesians and Europeans?

Shipwrecked in the Pacific

A missing crew discovered after 26 years.

The story of Kupe the explorer and Wheke as told by Elsdon Best.

Māori girls shooting the waves in a waka.

World-famous waka

World-famous waka

In 2011, during the City of London Festival, the carved waka taua (war canoe) Te Hono ki Aotearoa was paddled up the River Thames. The waka belongs to Toi Māori Aotearoa, the national contemporary ...

Waka taua, 1769

Waka taua, 1769

This ornately carved waka taua (war canoe) was seen off Gable End Foreland on the East Coast by members of English explorer James Cook's first voyage in 1769. The tauihu (prow) includes a large fig...

The legend of the voyage to New Zealand

The legend of the voyage to New Zealand

This oil painting by Kennett Watkins shows a fleet of double-hulled, ocean- going waka (canoes) landing in New Zealand. The first waka to arrive in the new country were probably double-hulled, and ...

A model of a double-hulled sailing vaka (canoe) from Tahiti.

Ngatokimatawhaorua

Ngatokimatawhaorua

The waka Ngatokimatawhaorua at sea off Waitangi.

Pacific voyaging

Pacific voyaging

A painting by John Bevan Ford, ‘Peoples of the Pacific,’ is part of his ‘Ngā tohunga waka’ (expert navigators) series.

Hekenukumai Busby

Hekenukumai Busby

In 1991–92 Hekenukumai (Hector) Busby, a skilled navigator from Northland, built the waka hourua (double-hulled canoe) Te Aurere. He was inspired by Nainoa Thompson, the navigator of the Hōkūle‘a, ...

Polynesian voyages

Polynesian voyages

Map showing voyages of the Polynesian navigators.

Map showing Cook’s voyage

Map showing Cook’s voyage

This map from 1800 shows the routes taken by Captain James Cook when he visited New Zealand in 1769–70, 1773 and 1777.

Map of Nova Zeelandia

Map of Nova Zeelandia

This is a copy of Frans Visscher’s chart of the discoveries made by Abel Tasman during his 1642–43 and 1644 voyages.

Horouta Canoe, Horouta (Waka), Ngati Porou

On 26 August 1768, Captain James Cook departed from Plymouth on the HMS Endeavour. With him were 94 men, copious supplies, and secret instructions to locate the fabled southern continent known as ‘...

Cook monument, Ship Cove

Cook monument, Ship Cove

James Cook first brought his vessel, the Endeavour, into this bay in the Marlborough Sounds, known to Māori as Meretoto, in January 1770.

Captain Cook with a sextant

Captain Cook with a sextant

This stamp, issued in 1997 by the New Zealand Post Office to celebrate the navigational work of Captain James Cook, depicts his map of New Zealand and his sextant. Sextants were used to determine a...

A marine compass

A marine compass

marine compass said to be of type used by Captain James Cook. In round screw top wooden box

The clipper ship 'Wild Deer', at Port Chalmers, Dunedin.

The ship Astrolabe in distress on a reef in Tongatapu.

Cook’s map of New Zealand, 1773

Cook’s map of New Zealand, 1773

Map of the coast of New Zealand sighted by Cook in 1769.

Double-hulled canoes

Double-hulled canoes

Painting by Isaac Gilsemans of double-hulled canoes.

The arrival of the Māori in New Zealand

The arrival of the Māori in New Zealand

Probably the best-known history painting ever produced in New Zealand caused a sensation when first exhibited in 1899.

The great fish of Maui

The great fish of Maui

This picture illustrates the Māori myth of fishing up New Zealand (in other words, its discovery) by the Polynesian hero and demi-god Maui-tikitiki-o-Taranga.

Roadside stories: Kupe in the Hokianga

Hokianga Harbour was the departure point of legendary Māori navigator Kupe when he returned to Hawaiki.

Waka landing places

This map shows the landing places of a number of waka (canoes) important to different iwi (tribes) throughout New Zealand. They are Kurahaupō, Tākitimu, Mataatua, Tainui, Te Arawa, Aotea, Tokomaru,...

Vessels and Methods - Polynesian Voyagers. The Maori as a Deep-sea Navigator, Explorer, and Colonizer

We have scant information as to the size of trees suitable for canoe-making in the various islands of the Pacific. Ellis mentions a tree called by him the apape, used in canoe-making by Tahitians, ...

Chapter III. — Kupe—the Navigator - History and traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast, North Island of New Zealand, prior to 1840

Those among us who take a real interest in the history of the Polynesian Race, and especially those who have studied the matter somewhat deeply with a view of eliminating errors in the Native histo...

EPIC contains a number of databases with useful information related to New Zealand film, television and photography. School login may be required.

Waka is the Māori word for canoe. Māori ancestors were great canoe builders, navigators and sailors. Thousands of years ago, Māori ancestors left South-East Asia, moving into Oceania (Micronesia, M...

The ancient craft that carried the first settlers to New Zealand were probably double-hulled – rather like two canoes side by side. They are called waka hourua.

Voyage on the Endeavour

Live and sleep like an 18th-century seafarer.

Different waka for different roles

There were many different types of waka that were developed by our ancestors.

Maps in the stars

How Polynesians used celestial navigation to become the world’s best explorers.

Navigating oceans and cultures

Polynesian and European navigation systems in the late eighteenth century.

Navigation tools

Ancient mariners navigated around the ocean using various tools.

The worst jobs In history

The worst at sea jobs in history.

NZ bird migration and navigation

How do NZ migratory birds know where to go and how to get there?

Captain Cook and Tahiti

How Cook navigated to Tahiti.

Navigating the Pacific

A brief article on traditional navigation of the Pacific.

Settling Polynesia

How humans reached remote South Pacific islands.

A thousand years ago, the great voyager Kupe made an epic journey.

Life at sea in the 18th century Royal Navy.

How did ships navigate?

How did ships navigate from place to place at sea? Also tells the story of navigator Mary Patten.

Tupaia’s chart

One of the most intriguing artefacts brought back from Cook’s voyages in the Pacific is a map called Tupaia’s chart.

Navigation educational materials

In order to foster interest in navigation, the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation have prepared navigation educational materials for students.

Building a vaka

A Tokelau community in Porirua is keeping traditional knowledge alive by building a vaka from scratch.

The waka of Kupe's landing at Petone.

Waka discovered

A partially complete waka has been uncovered during excavation work on a motorway project.

Polynesia's genius navigators

How did the first inhabitants of Easter Island arrive at one of the most remote islands on Earth?

Polynesian explorers

How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean?

How to identify different sailing ships.

Indigenous navigational knowledge and recovery

Explores the resurgence of the waka (canoe) culture and discusses the reasons for the disappearance of traditional navigational knowledge in Aotearoa and other islands of the Pacific.

Human settlement and the Pacific

Our Polynesian ancestors are renowned as some of the world’s most successful and innovative navigators.

Marshall Islands stick charts.

A sustainable ocean going vaka

A new type of vaka motu is now sailing the Pacific Ocean.

Searching for te lapa, an underwater lighting-like phenomenon that can guide Pacific navigation.

Vaka Taumako project

The building of an authentic Polynesian voyaging vaka.

Early navigation

How did early sailors navigate the oceans?

Polynesian navigation stick charts

The Polynesians, scattered over 1,000 islands across the central and southern Pacific Ocean, were master navigators.

Life on board of an 18th-century replica ship, the Shtandart.

The history of navigation at sea.

Sticks and shell charts

How sticks and shell charts became a sophisticated system for navigation in the Pacific.

Where Kupe landed

Where Kupe landed

This article mentions one of the many places legendary explorer and tohunga, Kupe landed in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Kupe visited and actually lived on the Hokianga Harbour. You can see the place wher...

Māori voyagers

Elsdon Best regarded Māori as the ‘Vikings of the Pacific.’

The concrete model of the Māori waka (canoe) Aotea can still be found above a gateway on the main street of Patea. Unveiled in 1933 it was constructed in memory of the ancestors Rongorongo and part...

Statute of Kupe, his wife, and a tohunga

Statute of Kupe, his wife, and a tohunga

Originally made of plaster, this 1939 sculpture by William Trethewey was called ‘The Coming of the Māori’ in recognition of the explorer Kupe’s navigation skills in discovering Aotearoa/New Zealand...

Double-hulled Tongan kalia

Double-hulled Tongan kalia

Tongans were considered among the most adventurous ocean voyagers in Polynesia. Their ocean-going double-hulled waka (kalia) were large and ranged from 40 to 90 feet in length. Some could carry ove...

Captain Cook and the ship Endeavour

Captain Cook and the ship Endeavour

People of a certain age will certainly remember studying Captain Cook in primary school. We named creeks, coves, streets, beaches, mountains, straits and even a suburb in honour of this New Zealand...

A Marshall Islands stick chart used for ocean navigation.

Navigating by the stars

In this activity, students learn the cardinal points of the compass. They also learn how to use the Sun and star constellations – the Southern Cross and the Pointers – to identify the cardinal comp...

Animal navigation

How do animals know where they are going when they migrate?

Pacific navigation

Pacific navigation

In the early 13th to 17th century Māori, Polynesian and European voyagers did not have maps or tools to guide them to New Zealand. They used double-hulled canoes, ships and environmental guides suc...

The Māori waka

The names of parts of Māori waka and associated objects.

Horouta waka resource

Ngāi Tāmanuhiri has worked alongside the Ministry of Education to create an educational resource, targeted at 9-11-year-old te reo Māori learners, called ‘He Putanga nō Uki’, which is a story about...

Should we remember Captain Cook 250 years after he landed in NZ?

It's been described as the most significant event in our nation's history - the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1769 at Poverty Bay.

The star compass – kāpehu whetū

Like the Sun, stars rise in the eastern horizon and set in the western horizon. Navigators who know the direction and position in which the stars rise and set can use the horizon as a compass.

Navigating with Sun, Moon and planets

Knowledge about the apparent movement of the Sun, Moon and planets across the celestial sphereis important for wayfinding.

Navigating without instruments – introduction

The 2012–2013 voyage of the Waka Tapu closed the Polynesian triangle. This confirmed that it is possible to successfully and deliberately travel great distances by canoe while navigating without in...

Waka is the Māori word for canoe. Māori ancestors were great canoe builders, navigators and sailors.

Rediscovering traditional Māori navigation

Recently, there has been renewed interest in understanding how Polynesian peoples navigated the Pacific.

Wayfinding revival

There has been renewed interest in the ancient art of wayfinding over the last 30–40 years.

Kupe and modern voyaging

In this activity, students read a legend of Kupe. They compare this with modern-day voyaging without navigational instruments to work out what might have happened during the Polynesian migration.

Pathway of the Birds

A review of Andrew Crowe’s Pathway of the Birds: The Voyaging Achievements of Maōri and Their Polynesian Ancestors.

Roadside Stories: Kupe and Cook in the Sounds

In Māori tradition, the drowned river valleys of the Marlborough Sounds were explored by the legendary Polynesian navigator Kupe in his pursuit of a giant octopus. Many place names in the area rela...

Departure of the six canoes from Raratonga for New Zealand

Departure of the six canoes from Raratonga for New Zealand

oil on canvas 1075 x 2140 mm - Kennett Watkins 1906 (l.l.) Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, gift of Mr John Marshall, 1914

The canoe is the people

The island peoples of the Pacific held the knowledge and skills to explore the great ocean paths extending far beyond their homes.

Pacific migrations

Pacific migrations

The Pacific was settled from the west by people sailing double-hulled canoes in a south-east direction. One of the main exceptions to this pattern was the settlement of New Zealand, which was achie...

Can you name 10 tools we once used to navigate the seas?

Over the last five hundred years, dramatic advances in navigational science and technology have altered the navigator’s work and methods.

Ideas about Māori origins

Ideas about Māori origins

The 1926 book Maori symbolism was written by the feminist Ettie Rout. Like other books of the time, it presented ideas about Māori origins that have since been disproved. Rout claimed that Māori he...

Can you name 10 tools we once used to navigate the seas?

Over the last five hundred years, dramatic advances in navigational science and technology have altered the navigator’s work and methods.

New Research Shows Māori Traveled to Antarctica at Least 1,000 Years Before Europeans

A new paper by New Zealander researchers suggests that the indigenous people of mainland New Zealand - Māori - have a significantly longer history with Antarctica.

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