‘Port de Tarranarki’, 1824

‘Port de Tarranarki’, 1824

This is a facsimile from the original plate of Jules de Blosseville’s map of the North Island. De Blosseville, a midshipman on the Coquille, visited the Bay of Islands in 1824 and drew this map based on others’ information. There is an imaginary large harbour, Port de Tarranarki, on the west coast, south of Mt Taranaki (‘Pouké é Aoupapa’). This myth persisted in maps of New Zealand for many years.