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From James Cook's first voyage in which he charted New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. The map depicts Cook's Strait, that seperates the north and south island of New Zealand. Present day Wellington (NZ's capital), Marlborough Sounds, and Cloudy Bay (famous for their white wines) are located within the scope of the chart.

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) was an exceptional explorer, navigator and cartographer who during his three voyages exploring the Pacific (1768-1779) charted a number of coastlines and produced many detailed charts. Of his many charts there are around thirteen that depict Australia & New Zealand, six of which are central to his accomplishments. These include the three key charts from his three Pacific voyages, Chart of the South Sea… (1773, Showing a complete Australia and New Zealand for the first time), ‘A Chart of the Southern Hemisphere …’(1777, showing his exploration around the Antarctic) and ‘A General Chart…’(1784, of the world showing all of his voyages’ discoveries). This world chart is said to have been the most accurate map of the world when it was first published. Three of his other central charts are a ‘Chart of New Zealand…’, ‘A Chart of New South Wales…’, and ‘Botany Bay…’, which are all from his first voyage, published in 1773. All of his charts are of a very high quality and are particularly important because they usually showed new discoveries for the first time. Sadly in 1779 Cook was killed in Hawaii during his third voyage to the Pacific.

View map online on http://www.antiquemapart.com/map/267