Captain Cook's Landing Site

A headland and coastal reserve, marking the first point of New Zealand sighted by Captain Cook's crewman, and the subsequent landing on 9 October 1769.

Statues of Cook and the crewman who sighted land, Nicolas Young, stand at the mouth of the Turanganui River near Waikanae Beach. The headland protects the southern opening of Poverty Bay.

Named 'Titirangi, Poho o Rawiri' by the first Maori settlers in remembrance of their mountain in Hawaiki, Titirangi was the site of an extensive pa, bearing the same name, whose origins can be traced back for at least twenty-four Maori generations. The hill was also a place of whare wananga - houses of special learning.

When Captain James Cook stepped ashore in 1769 at the base of the hill near the Horouta landing place, Titirangi was no longer occupied although small villages were on some of the lower slopes.