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Story: European discovery of New Zealand

Young Nicks Head

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Young Nicks Head

In October 1769 Cook and his crew first sighted the east coast of the North Island, south of present-day Gisborne. He named the prominent headland on the south side of Poverty Bay Young Nicks Head, after the cabin boy Nicholas Young, who was the first to sight land from the Endeavour.

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GNS Science

Reference: 12936

by Lloyd Homer

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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/photograph/1417/young-nicks-head (accessed 24 June 2026).

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