Story: European discovery of New Zealand
Abel Tasman made his voyage of discovery in two small ships, the Heemskerck and Zeehaen. In 1992 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands presented New Zealand with a sculpture of the ships, shown here. The gift marked the 350th anniversary of Tasman’s discovery, which began a long association between New Zealand and the Netherlands. It was commissioned by Dutch migrants who had come to New Zealand in the 1950s, and made by a New Zealand sculptor of Dutch descent, Margriet Windhausen.
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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Photograph by Melanie Lovell-Smith
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