A walk, a talk, a drop of wine

On James Cook’s first visit to the Marlborough Sounds, he climbed a hill in outer To¯ taranui/queen Charlotte Sound, to see if the ‘‘great southern continent’’ theory was right.

He worked out what Ma¯ ori already knew and what he already suspected – New Zealand was not part of a great unknown continent but was in fact islands.

On that trip to the Sounds, Cook met with Topaa, the chief of Hippah Island – a rocky islet at the southern end of Motuara Island.

There was ‘‘little wind’’ in the Marlborough Sounds on January 31, 1770, Cook wrote in his diary.

He explained to Topaa that they had come to set up a mark on the island to show that the English had been. Topaa agreed and assured Cook the marker would not be pulled down.

Cook hoisted the Union Jack, taking ‘‘formal possession’’ of the land, and popped the cork on what could have been the first bottle of wine drunk in Marlborough, toasting the king.

He gave Topaa the empty bottle and a few coins.

Yesterday, 250 years after its first expedition, the Endeavour has once again sailed through To¯ taranui, stopping for commemorations at Meretoto/ship Cove.

Cook had previously set out with two instructions, first to travel to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus and second to head south in the hope of finding the ‘‘great southern continent’’.

It was thought this land mass must exist to ‘‘balance’’ out the world.

Ma¯ ori historian Peter Meihana, a descendant of Topaa and of Nga¯ti Kuia, Rangita¯ ne, Nga¯ ti Apa, and Nga¯ i Tahu descent, said Cook entered the Sounds with his world view.

‘‘He was thinking: right, I have just taken possession of this place.

‘‘Topaa, he was probably thinking: this stuff is interesting. I don’t think he would have envisaged, that 250 years later, his descendants would be landless and be in the position lots of Ma¯ ori are in today.

‘‘He would have assumed his descendants would have always been around.’’

Meihana thought the empty wine bottle would have been ‘‘nothing special’’ to Topaa, he said.

‘‘At the time Cook I suspect thought: these people are easily amused.

‘‘You have got to think of what world Cook came from and what world he had entered.’’

Wine Marlborough general manager Marcus Pickens thought the wine was likely a port or madeira, as they were two of the ‘‘longest living’’ wines.

Madeira is a fortified wine made on the Madeira Islands of Portugal, and was ‘‘probably the world’s most resilient’’ wine, Pickens said.

‘‘You would need something that lasts for a long time in different conditions and weather,’’ Pickens said.

Historically, Madeira had been shipped from the small island in the Atlantic to England.

That process of being shipped across various temperatures actually altered the wine’s characteristic, stabilising it and giving it a long life, Pickens said.

‘‘It has very high acidity, it lasts forever.’’