Polynesian Navigation and the Discovery of New Zealand

MEDIA RELEASE
22 August 2011

Polynesian Navigation and the Discovery of New Zealand

Jeff Evans

The discovery of New Zealand by Polynesian navigators represents the culmination of one of the great waves of world exploration.

Without the modern navigational aids that Europeans used to reach New Zealand centuries later, the navigator Kupe and the many canoes that followed were able to find their way through perilous seas in wooden canoes.

By examining myth, star charts and contemporary Polynesian seafaring, author and photographer Jeff Evans traces the methods by which Polynesian explorers made their epic voyages, supported by maps and illustrations.

Polynesian Navigation and the Discovery of New Zealand also relates the voyage of the canoe Hawaiki-nui – built following traditional methods and navigated without modern instruments – from Tahiti to New Zealand in 1985.

First published in 1998 as The Discovery of Aotearoa, the retitled and corrected book will now be permanently available thanks to digital printing technology.

ENDS

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