Girls on Cook's beach - it was hot!
This was one of our 'Beach Days' and it was HOT! We cooled down in the shade eventually and then went up to the cliffs to look at Lonely Bay.
Captain James Cook, who named things all over New Zealand, was a master seaman, surveyor and astronomer, and he sailed on the Endeavour into Mercury Bay (because he saw the transit of Mercury there) on 3rd November 1769.)
He were a Yorkshire lad - which may account for his simplistic naming of everything he discovered..
Cook anchored at Cooks Beach (decided to name a beach after himself) off Purangi.
He spent ten days in the area exploring and taking astronomical readings and while here he observed the transit of Mercury (apparently helps us determine our distance from the sun). Then he carved his name into a tree, claimed the area and sailed off - how British!
Aerial view of Cook's Beach
There are two monuments commemorating this event: one at Cooks Beach, and the other at Shakespeare Cliff. The photo is of the one at Shakespeare Cliff ( so named because he thought it looked like Shakespeare's head - yes, really!)
Viewpoint of Cook's beach and monument
The next transit of Mercury that will be fully visible from New Zealand will occur in 2052. .. I wonder if we'll see it?
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