at the tip of North Cape. In the past the cliffs have sometimes been referred to as Kerr Point but true Kerr Point lies a short distance away at the western end of North Cape. The first European discovery of the cliffs was made by Jean-François-Marie de Surville in December 1769, when he sailed his ship St Jean Baptiste to New Zealand to find a safe anchorage to care for sick crew. He found them only a few days before they were seen by James Cook. The cliffs expose 1.2 square kilometres of serpentinised peridotite mafic rocks. They form a unique environment that supports a number of threatened and endangered plants endemic to the area, including: Pittosporum ellipticum subsp. serpentinum Hebe brevifolia Hebe ligustrifolia Helichrysum aggregatum Leucopogon xerampelinus Pimelea tomentosa (sand daphne) Phyllocladus trichomanoides (tanekaha) Pseudopanax lessonii (coastal fivefinger) Uncinia perplexa (Surville Cliffs bastard grass) References Far North District Headlands of the Northland Region Volcanoes of the Northland Region Tombolos