Two Voyages, One Encounter

The first meeting of Maori and Europeans and the journeys that led to it.

The first immigrants sailed to New Zealand from the Central Pacific in large double hulled waka built without any metal, using only natural materials and stone tools. It was the longest of all the Polynesian voyages, and the greatest test of their seafaring skills. The people who made the journey carried no navigational instruments at all. They relied entirely on the skill of their navigator who used his observations of the sun, stars, ocean, birds and clouds to carry them safely to land. They risked the voyage to New Zealand to escape warfare, death or starvation.