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Story: European discovery of New Zealand

Cook’s South Cape

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Cook’s South Cape

In the second of two main mistakes on Cook’s map of New Zealand, Stewart Island is recorded as a possible peninsula. In fact, Cook thought there probably was a passage between what he mapped as South-west Bay and South-east Bay, and left his chart incomplete. Foveaux Strait was first discovered when an American sealing ship sailed through it in 1804.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: PUBL-0037-25

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

John Wilson, European discovery of New Zealand – Cook’s three voyages, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/1421/cooks-south-cape (accessed 23 June 2026).

Story by John Wilson, published 4 March 2009, updated 1 May 2016.