Captain James Cook After a skirmish with local Maori, he sailed on, never setting foot on land, however his 'footprint' still lies in the name he gave Aotearoa - New Zealand.

The next Europeans to visit Aotearoa/New Zealand came under the stewardship of the famous English mariner, Captain James Cook, who in 1769 visited the South Pacific in order to study the passage of Venus across the disc of the sun.

News of Cook's 'discovery' spread fast and in the ensuing years early settlers began arriving in New Zealand in search of timber, flax for ropes, and whales for the production of oil. These early visitors, who sometimes settled, brought with them western materials such as tools and muskets, as well as alcohol and disease. Of all these imports, disease and muskets were the two which had the most devastating effect on the indigenous Maori population. However it was confusion and miscommunication over land ownership that was to have the biggest and most wide ranging effect on the traditional Maori way of life.