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Story: Shipping

First ships

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First ships

Māori have their ancestral waka (canoes); Europeans have their founding ships. In settlements founded by New Zealand Company colonists, the names of early immigrant ship names adorn streets, buildings and public spaces. Many people still trace their roots to specific ships. A concrete replica of the first New Zealand Company migrant ship, the Aurora, thrusts out toward the traffic from Petone’s Wellington Provincial Centennial Memorial Building.

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Private collection

by Gavin McLean

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How to cite this page

Gavin McLean, Shipping – The era of sail, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/5787/first-ships (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Gavin McLean, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 January 2016.