November 18, 2015
Iwi ready to mark Cook visit
Coromandel iwi Ngati Hei is joining up with the Mercury Bay Community Board and other bodies in the area to prepare for the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's arrival in Te Whanganui A Hei.
Community board chair Paul Kelly, who is chairing the new Mercury 250 Anniversary Trust, says the Endeavour’s 12-day stay in the bay will be the focus of local, national and international attention in 2019.
Not only did Cook establish the geographic coordinates of New Zealand while there, but his stay there was marked by mutual respect between Europeans and tangata whenua.
Mercury Bay will organise activities around three themes: navigation and exploration, scientific discoveries including observing the transit of Mercury across the Sun, and the sharing of cultures.
Mr Kelly says the board is liaising with similar regional organisations which have been established at other places where Cook landed during his circumnavigation of New Zealand, and it is also looking at public and private funding options.
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