<P> The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were the crew of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who arrived in his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen . Tasman anchored at the northern end of the South Island in Golden Bay ( he named it Murderers ' Bay ) in December 1642 and sailed northward to Tonga following an attack by local Māori . Tasman sketched sections of the two main islands ' west coasts . Tasman called them Staten Landt , after the States General of the Netherlands , and that name appeared on his first maps of the country . In 1645 Dutch cartographers changed the name to Nova Zeelandia in Latin , from Nieuw Zeeland , after the Dutch province of Zeeland . It was subsequently anglicised as New Zealand by British naval captain James Cook of HM Bark Endeavour who visited the islands more than 100 years after Tasman during 1769 -- 1770 . Cook returned to New Zealand on both of his subsequent voyages . </P>
<P> The first Europeans known to reach New Zealand were the crew of Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who arrived in his ships Heemskerck and Zeehaen . Tasman anchored at the northern end of the South Island in Golden Bay ( he named it Murderers ' Bay ) in December 1642 and sailed northward to Tonga following an attack by local Māori . Tasman sketched sections of the two main islands ' west coasts . Tasman called them Staten Landt , after the States General of the Netherlands , and that name appeared on his first maps of the country . In 1645 Dutch cartographers changed the name to Nova Zeelandia in Latin , from Nieuw Zeeland , after the Dutch province of Zeeland . It was subsequently anglicised as New Zealand by British naval captain James Cook of HM Bark Endeavour who visited the islands more than 100 years after Tasman during 1769 -- 1770 . Cook returned to New Zealand on both of his subsequent voyages . </P>
when did the british arrived in new zealand
when did the british arrived in new zealand
1769
1769