# Vikings in New Zealand **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 8, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185 "2003-09-08T00:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/101 "2013-03-31T22:36:20Z")
> [@Georg](#): > > I read once there is a cave on the north island which contains history of new Zealand and who the first settlers were. Only problem is that is has been sealed off and will not be opened to the public until 2056. There is no such cave. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/102 "2013-03-31T23:11:40Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Georg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9f8e36/32.png) [@Georg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Georg)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/103 "2013-03-31T23:22:48Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > If you are talking about the Moriori, then that’s nonsense. The Moriori were not white, and it is now thought that they did not colonize New Zealand before the Maoris arrived. > > That’s Hawaiian. The Maori word for European is _pakeha._ White European. ---
**Author:** ![Georg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9f8e36/32.png) [@Georg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Georg)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/104 "2013-03-31T23:25:00Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > There is no such cave. And you know this how? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/105 "2013-03-31T23:33:57Z")
Just for s’n’gs, your site claims that the Viking/Celtic settlers travelled from Scotland down the Atlantic and across the Indian Ocean to reach New Zealand. The much shorter trip to Newfoundland required leapfrogging from Iceland to Greenland and then to Vinland - in open ocean in the Sagas of the Icelanders tell of [worms that eat the hulls of ships](http://sagadb.org/eiriks_saga_rauda.en) if they stray too far. Established Norse protocol therefore would be to set up staging posts along the journey to facilitate colonisation, or at the very least resupply ship victuals like fresh water and food needed for a journey of about 25,000 miles, hugging the coasts. Do you have any evidence of Norse landfall along the route and how it was technically feasible for the ships of the time to survive such a journey - what were the ships used? ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/106 "2013-04-01T00:42:34Z")
> [@Georg](#): > > And you know this how? Because it is baloney. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/107 "2013-04-01T00:45:35Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Because it is baloney. [On the contrary…](http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/36887065.jpg) Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/108 "2013-04-01T00:49:10Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Because it is baloney. Wait. Are you saying it was Italians, and not Vikings, who go there? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/109 "2013-04-01T01:06:17Z")
> [@Georg](#): > > White European. I meant of European descent, so yes, it would mean White European. It doesn’t, however, mean Viking, because there is no Maori word for Viking. Because the Maoris never encountered Vikings. > [@Georg](#): > > And you know this how? Because I lived in New Zealand for a number of years and had scientific and academic colleagues who were anthropologists and paleontologists, as well as friends who were active cavers. (I went caving a few times myself.) If there had been any such cave I would have heard of it. If you want anyone to believe such a cave might exist you need to provide some evidence besides “I read once…” ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/110 "2013-04-01T01:07:03Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Wait. Are you saying it was Italians, and not Vikings, who go there? There is a more plausible theory that the [Portuguese](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429904) were the first Europeans to discover NZ and Australia. It won’t feed anyone’s Viking fetish, but the history of Portuguese exploration is staggering on its own. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/111 "2013-04-01T01:16:47Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > There is a more plausible theory that the [Portuguese](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10429904) were the first Europeans to discover NZ and Australia. It won’t feed anyone’s Viking fetish, but the history of Portuguese exploration is staggering on its own. Entirely plausible, since that is well within the “Age of Discovery”. Claims about Vikings, which would have been well before that, don’t have any substantiation. ---
**Author:** ![Georg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9f8e36/32.png) [@Georg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Georg)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/112 "2013-04-01T04:35:40Z")
[http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenonh.html](http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenonh.html) It didn’t mention anything about New Zealand, but I found it interesting ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/113 "2013-04-01T05:06:04Z")
> [@](#): > > To this day the islanders point to the differences of the men of Malaita Island compared to the other Solomon natives in terms of intelligence and bearing… Intelligence and bearing? That would be almost quaint, if it weren’t so ridiculous and racist! ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/114 "2013-04-01T05:10:33Z")
> [@Georg](#): > > [Vikings Visited Cairns](http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenonh.html) > > It didn’t mention anything about New Zealand, but I found it interesting Well certainly I enjoy a good work of fiction as much as the next guy. Although most fiction I read is better written and more plausible. Well, OK, Illuminatus probably isn’t better written. But it is more plausible. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/115 "2013-04-01T08:50:01Z")
> [@Georg](#): > > [Vikings Visited Cairns](http://www.mysteriousaustralia.com/strangephenomenonh.html) > > It didn’t mention anything about New Zealand, but I found it interesting That page is utter tripe, as evidenced by gems such as this: > [@](#): > > My interest in our ancient past was excited in 1972 with the discovery by natives digging a trench in the mountainous jungle country inland from Port Moresby New Guinea, of a bronze horned helmet. Experts later identified it as a Viking relic at least 900 years old. An expert identifying a bronze horned helmet as a Viking relic would have to be an idiot. Even if this story was true, which the rest of the page doesn’t make likely, the available evidence on horned European helmets make a Viking origin unlikely, and an age of 900 years too young. I too would have found a site like that interesting, as a kid. I found the Däniken-book I read interesting. But eventually I realized that just because somebody has the ability to type and publish they’re not automatically reliable, and that goes double for the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/116 "2013-04-01T11:47:27Z")
The Germans were colonizing New Guinea about the same time they were big on all that Wagnerian crap. That might explain your bronze helmet. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/117 "2013-04-01T12:03:30Z")
I’m wondering how old Geørg is. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/118 "2013-04-01T12:42:21Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > The Germans were colonizing New Guinea about the same time they were big on all that Wagnerian crap. That might explain your bronze helmet. Until I see a better cite than an orange on black transcription of “Psychic Australian March 1977” I’m going with the explanation “someone made it up”. Okay, maybe I can stretch my mind to also accept “misrepresented” or “misunderstood” some event or other. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/119 "2013-04-01T13:14:30Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > I’m wondering how old Geørg is. Haven’t heard a peep from him in awhile. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185/120 "2013-04-01T15:33:26Z")
Yes, but what about the well known arrival of the Egyptians to New Zealand in 2200 BC? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vikings-in-new-zealand/200185.md?page=7)