Polynesian tagged posts

The boulder bar at the mouth of the Wairau river.

It’s not much to look at, but Wairau is probably the most important archaeological site in New Zealand.

It is the location of the oldest known settlement, and also the location of the oldest human remains yet discovered.

Interest in the site originated in 1939 when schoolboy Jim Eyles found some old bones. He had come across an ‘Urupa’, or burial ground. He discovered more in 1942, and this attracted academic interest. In 1942, Roger Duff began what would be a prolonged series of investigations on the Wairau Bar. In his excavations, 2000 items were removed to the Canterbury, including more than 40 skeletons.

The Wairau bar occupation site

The site, now a long boulder spit, used to be an island, and was home to a significant vi...

The Kurahaupo’s progress across the Pacific Ocean

The people of the Kurahaupo had traveled 3,000 km from Raiatea. With their boat repaired, they set sail again from Rangitahua, on the final ocean leg of their voyage.

The closest land is the North Cape of New Zealand…. 1,000 km to the West-South-West. If their course was good, and the weather fair, they would make that distance in about 10 days.

Diary: The ‘Great and misty land’

”We had been on the ocean over a week when we first saw the land sign. Land was still far off, beyond the horizon, but we could see the signs. In the direction we were sailing there should be nothing… nothing that is except Kupe’s ‘Great and Misty Land’… and now, we were approaching it.”

The next afternoon we saw it… what excitement there was...

Raoul Island

The Kermadec Islands are somewhat grandly named.

Raoul, 8 km across at its broadest point, is by far the largest in the chain; and the only one with water. It is mostly rugged and steep. It has rocky beaches facing North and South-West, but no safe anchorage. Anyone visiting in a sailing boat would not choose to linger.

The next largest is Macauley Island. It is 100km to the South-South-West, just over a kilometre across, and barren. There are no trees there, and no water.

The remainder of ‘islands’ in the chain are just rocks; the largest being 100 metres across.

The people of the Kurahaupo had managed to find Rangitahua, Raoul to us, a tiny speck 2,000 km’s away from their point of departure...

The vessel sighted mid-Pacific by Schouten in 1616

What do we know of the type of vessels used to first explore and settle New Zealand?

We can’t be entirely certain, but some things are well understood. We know the general size, appearance, and construction of these ocean-going vessels, but we do not know absolutely; the bow and stern shape of the hulls, or the type of sail rig.

They were large catamarans. The hulls were long and narrow and for ocean going a length of about 25 metres was preferred. The hulls were joined by spars, over which a deck was laid. The vessels could carry up to sixty people or more.

There is no written description of these vessels, and there are no contemporary pictures...

Society Islands sails, 1770’s

During Cooks first Pacific voyage in 1769, Joseph Banks recorded in detail an ocean-going vessel he saw. In particular he noted the raised bow and high stern, and also the nature of the sail arrangement. In this description he distinguished between boats used for fishing – ‘ivahas’ and those used for ocean travel or fighting – ‘Paheis’.

While describing these canoes he also said ‘when fitted for sailing’, implying that this could be a temporary arrangement; that the same vessels could be rigged both with, and without sails. It appears to have been normal practice that the hulls might be used singly for coastal work, but then paired for voyaging. When a hull was used singly, and with sail, then an outrigger was added for stability.

In th...

Oxford English dictionary definition of ‘waka’:
Waka (n) A traditional Maori canoe.

Model waka.

The Maori use the word ‘waka’ to describe all types of boat. Whilst ‘canoe’ might be appropriate to describe most contemporary Maori boats, which are used for inshore purposes, it is very misleading when used to describe the type vessel employed to settle New Zealand. The boats the Polynesians arrived in were large catamarans, they had sails, and they could transport up to seventy people… none of this suggests ‘canoe’. The Polynesians did not paddle here.

The Polynesians settled the Islands of the Central and Eastern Pacific in quick succession from about 100 AD onwards...