by Melanie Lovell-Smith
The narrow islands of New Zealand did not appear on a world map until 1646, after Abel Tasman’s visit in 1642. There were gaps in his charts, and subsequently a big gap in mapping history: nearly 130 years passed before Captain James Cook made his remarkably accurate surveys. These finally put paid to the theory of a ‘great southern continent’, but even when settlers began arriving, most of the interior remained uncharted.
Main image: 16th-century map of the Pacific
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