• Video
• Image Gallery
• Cook's Voyages
• Cook and the Transit of Venus
• Cook and Navigation
• First contacts
• Science & Art of Cook's Voyage
• Cook Related Information

• ASTRONOMY
• WAKA VOYAGING
• TRANSIT OF VENUS
  2004 EXPEDITIONS

In this Cook's Explorations section you will find a selection of websites, videos, multimedia, interactive and written materials that examine the voyage of Cook's Endeavour, the ship, its crew, artists and scientists, the Transit of Venus observations, navigation and charting.

Captain's Log
Follow in the footsteps of Captain James Cook. Re-live his amazing voyage of discovery and first contact with the Maori people. In Captain's Log, Peter Elliott sails around New Zealand retracing Captain Cook's voyage of discovery in 1769. The log and journals of Captain Cook and crew of The Endeavour are heard as we follow the route of the voyage of first substantive charting, naming, and contact with the Maori. Cook's voyage represents the start of New Zealand's modern national history. The excerpts streamed on this website are made available courtesy of Livingstone Productions.

Cooks Voyages links you to the journals and logs of Cook and the Endeavour's crew as they embark on their voyage of discovery to observe the Transit of Venus and search for the Great Southern Continent, completing the "world map", charting and exploring NZ's coast and many Pacific Islands.

Cook and the Transit of Venus examines Cook's observations of the Transit of Venus in Tahiti as part of the first international scientific co-operation. His mission was initiated by the Royal Society.

Cook and Navigation looks at Cook's as a supreme navigator, the search for accurate ways of determining Longitude and his skills as a chart maker. The question is "How Cook did it?"

First Contacts examines the significance of the Endeavour's subsequent "first contacts" with Maori and Polynesian cultures and recent research by Dame Anne Salmond forms a key part of this section.

Science and Art of Cook's Voyage shows how Joseph Banks added enormously to the world's knowledge of plants and animals, and how the ship's artists contributed to the impressions we have even today of the time and places the Endeavour visited.

Cook Related Information covers some current activities and organisations.