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Concept
Timeline of New Zealand history
Summary
This is a timeline of the history of New Zealand that includes only events deemed to be of principal importance – for less important events click the year heading or refer to List of years in New Zealand.
85 mya: Around this time New Zealand splits from the supercontinent Gondwana.
5 mya: New Zealand's climate cools as Australia drifts north. Animals that have adapted to warm temperate and subtropical conditions become extinct.
26,500 BP: The Taupō volcano erupts extremely violently, covering much of the country with volcanic ash and causing the Waikato River to avulse from the Hauraki Plains to its current path through the Waikato to the Tasman Sea.
18,000 BP: New Zealand's North and South islands are connected by a land bridge during the last ice age. Glaciers spread from the Southern Alps carving valleys and making fiords in the South Island. The land bridge is submerged around 9,700 BCE.
181 CE: Lake Taupō erupts violently.
c1280: Earliest archaeological sites provide evidence that initial settlement of New Zealand occurred around 1280 CE.
~1300: Most likely period of ongoing early settlement of New Zealand by Polynesian people (the Archaic Moa-Hunter Culture).
~1400: Rangitoto Island near Auckland is formed by a series of eruptions.
1400~1500: Development of the Classic Māori Material Culture including expansion of Māori settlement from coastal to inland areas, increase in horticulture and development of pā (hillforts)
~1400~1450: Most likely extinction of the moa.
1576: Speculation exists that around this time Spanish explorer Juan Fernández visited New Zealand although this is not generally accepted by most reputable authorities.
1601 onwards
Expansion and migration of Māori groups and formation of classic iwi. (many still existing today)
1642
13 December: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights the South Island. He called it Staten Landt but the Dutch East India Company cartographer Joan Blaeu subsequently changed it to Nieuw Zeeland.
18 December: Abel Tasman's expedition sails around Farewell Spit and into Golden Bay.
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