Who founded New Zealand?

Question

who was the first person to reach new zealand. was it james cook or abel tasman??

excluding native people.

Answer 1

The Dutchman, Abel Tasman was the first European to discover New Zealand in 1642 and the country is named after the province of Zeeland in The Netherlands. Though Tasman himself called it Staten Landt; Dutch map makers started calling it Nova Zeelandia from which the current name comes.

The Englishman, James Cook arrived in 1769 and was the first to sail completely around the country and discover that New Zealand was actually two main islands and he made the first map of the country. Tasman had only sailed part way down the west coast and had no idea of what shape New Zealand or Australia (he sailed along the southern coast of Tasmania) were.