A CHEERY COVE

In October 1769, less than three weeks after first making landfall in New Zealand, Captain Cook’s Endeavour sailed into the cove that now bears his name but was known to the local Te Aitanga-a- Hauiti tribe as Opoutama.

Cook anchored here for six days, and it was a remarkably harmonious interaction between the crew and the Te Aitanga-a- Hauiti. Goods were traded and the Endeavour took on supplies of water, food and wood.

Things went so well that the Te Aitanga-a-hauiti named a couple of places (and future children) after Tupaea, the Tahitian high priest aboard the Endeavour.