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Story: Early mapping

Cook’s map of New Zealand

This map of New Zealand shows the coastline as Cook charted it during his first visit in 1769–70. It was published in Sydney Parkinson’s Journal of a voyage to the South Seas (1773). The track of the Endeavour around New Zealand is also shown. Of particular interest is Cook’s depiction of Banks Peninsula as an island and Stewart Island as a possible peninsula. Overall, however, this chart provided an extremely accurate outline of New Zealand for future visitors.

Using this item

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

Melanie Lovell-Smith, Early mapping – Early mappers: 1642–1800, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/10773/cooks-map-of-new-zealand (accessed 22 June 2026).

Story by Melanie Lovell-Smith, published 1 March 2009.

Comments

Loreen Brehaut
16 September 2015
I agree, would love to print out a good copy for display
Mark Hansen
21 January 2012
Would it be possible to put up a link to the original image of this? The zoom in flash object makes for easy panning, but I can't save the image or print it out without a link to the original. It'd be awesome if you could make the original data available like that. Cheers Mark