Author Description

This is an account of the discovery of the islands now known as New Zealand. The book traces the arrival of the Polynesians - the ancestors of the Maori people - and explorer James Cook, who laid the foundations for the first extensive European exploration of the country by charting the coastline in detail and studying the flora and fauna. Using an extensive amount of personal anecdote drawn from letters and journals, the authors provide a portrait of the wide assortment of missionaries, scientists, surveyors, mountaineers, farmers and others who travelled through the land in the interests of commerce, communication, religion, science and the sheer love of adventure. Harry Morton has also written "The Wind Commands", which won the Sir James Wattie New Zealand Book of the Year award in 1976.