About Cook's voyage and place names

Learn about Cook’s voyages, the men who served under him and the New Zealand places they named.

In August 1768, Lieutenant James Cook sailed from Plymouth, England, on the HMB Endeavour. On board were 94 people, including officers, seamen, gentlemen and their servants, with nearly 18 months of provisions. The first purpose of the voyage was to travel to Tahiti and record the transit of Venus. The second, contained in secret instructions, was to travel further south and investigate the possibility of a southern continent.

Rather than a southern continent, Cook showed that the coast Dutch explorer Abel Tasman had charted in 1642 was part of a group of islands, which we now call New Zealand. The islands were already inhabited by tangata whenua – the people now collectively called Māori.

Cook and others on board the HMB Endeavour recorded many Māori names for geographic features, including for the two main islands – Aeheinomowe [probably Te Ahi no Māui] and Tovy-poenammu [Te Waipounamu]. However, they applied many more of their own names, which described how they saw the land, events during the voyage, and commemorating themselves and benefactors of the expedition. Most of the names come from Cook’s first journey as it circumnavigated New Zealand and stopped at various places.

After Cook’s first voyage (1768-1771), he easily convinced the British Navy to agree to a second voyage (1772-1775). This time he was given two ships: the HMS Resolution, which he took command of, and the HMS Adventure. They travelled as far south as possible, surveying the Antarctic waters and spending the winter in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. They spent several weeks at ‘Dusky Bay’ (Tamatea / Dusky Sound), where they named many features.

After this voyage, Cook was sent on a third voyage (1776-1779) to see if there was a northwest passage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. In New Zealand this voyage was primarily just a refuelling stop in Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui. Only one additional place name was identified from documents from the third voyage. Cook was met his death in Hawaii in February 1779.

The names

The place names given by those on board Cook’s ships fall into several broad categories:

  • descriptive such as Flat Island, Bay of Islands
  • metaphorical such as Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay
  • narrative such as Cape Runaway, Cape Turnagain

Names also honoured people:

  • royalty such as Queen Charlotte Sound (now Queen Charlotte Sound / Tōtaranui)
  • officers in the British Admiralty such as Cape Brett and Cape Colville
  • professional members on Cook’s ship such as Banks Peninsula and Solander Island (now Solander Island / Hautere)

The crew

Several other men on board kept journals and created charts. Those mentioned frequently include:

  • Richard Pickersgill, originally the master’s mate on HMB Endeavour and promoted to master after the death of the original master, Robert Molyneux, on the return trip to England. He was then promoted to third lieutenant for the second voyage. Of Pickersgill’s charts, several of the New Zealand coast from the first voyage survive and one of Dusky Sound from the second.
  • Joseph Banks, naturalist and later President of the Royal Society. Banks, as a young wealthy gentleman, financed himself and his associates on Cook’s first voyage. Banks pulled out of Cook’s second voyage after his increasing demands for space and resources were turned down.
  • Robert Molyneux, master on HMB Endeavour until his death on the return trip from Capetown to England. There is one surviving chart by Molyneux (his name is spelled in many ways).
  • Joseph Gilbert, master of the HMS Resolution on Cook’s second voyage. Gilbert made several charts of Tamatea / Dusky Sound. 
  • Peter Fannin, master of HMS Adventure on Cook’s second voyage. There is a surviving chart of Fannin’s showing Cook Strait.

More information