New Zealand's True First European Explorer? The Untold Story of Juan Fernandez | Earth Tiger

In this historical exploration, we dive deep into the theory that Spanish explorer Juan Fernandez may have reached the shores of New Zealand in the 16th century—an entire century before Abel Tasman’s famous expedition.

We explore the evidence, including the intriguing 1500s iron helmet found in Wellington Harbor and its potential connection to Spanish voyages.

Is it possible that this journey, lost to time, was the first European contact with Aotearoa?

[indigocrest]

there's a 500 year old pohutukawa tree in Spain which further proves this theory

[jackooz]

In 2019 my wife and I walked the Portuguese Camino. NZ Christmas trees are popular there. We saw one enormous specimen and were told it was 400 years old....

[ashleighzee]

Historically the term "fair" was also used to express handsomeness and an appealing appearance, not always to mean light skinned or haired. Great vid btw!

[pitaberaciri]

When I was in school an high school in Australia I was always taught over an over that Captain Cook discovered Australia / New Zealand an helped them develop . As I got older an actually listened an dug into myself I realised our school system will only tell the English side there’s too many other ships from other countries which sailed to Australia / New Zealand centuries before Captain Cook arrived .

[paulpaul]

Red Heads of New Zealand is an interesting three part series on You Tube as well

[mikev]

Was the iron helmet that you showed here, a photo of the actual helmet found in Wellington harbour?

[AndinoKiwi]

It's worth pointing out that the Spaniards also described the skin colour of the indigenous people of Chile as "fair, " so, it wouldn't be strange for them to have called the Maori fair as well. Apart from European people, the Spaniards had probably seen the skin colour of the people from sub-Saharan Africa, which is a lot darker. In their view, native Chileans and Maori would have been fair in comparison. Also in the topic of skin colours, dismissing Mohitore's story about the Spanish ship around East Cape because the Maori said those people had white skin does not make much sense. Those dismissing that story seem to assume that those Spaniards either did not have white skin, or that those Maori folk did not see them as having white skin. And even though Spaniards tend to have a darker skin tone than most people of British origin (the most common origin of NZ-Europeans), light-skinned Spaniards are not rare. Also, compared to the skin colour of Maori, the Spaniards would have looked quite pale, which would explain why Mohitore referred to these visitors as fairy people.

[JJbrown]

Kia ora Te Ao.. hello to the world.. thanks for sharing some truth of our oral histories traditions, , even the Wakablondes and Moriori were here before us Maori.. with the same story of escaping war zones homelands and ends up here in Aotearoa..land of the long white clouds..

[xxragequiter_ytxx]

It's called olive skin..yet depending on how much sun our skin gets, if not enough sun or sun exposure, our skin can become lighter if too much sun we can become quite dark if there's a balance of no sun and sun, we stay an olive colour

[Tuituibird]

Interesting. It would be way more convincing if there are some records describing the tribe's physical features and traditions

[hinefamily]

Pity he did not map it like so many other explorers of the time. Wonder why ?

[brotang]

Got a friend here in nz and him and his brother found a spanish style helmet on a pile of stones in the ruahine ranges, they cleaned it up and took it to the museum and they took it but said it wouldnt be displayed because they had cleaned it with a goldilocks pot scrubber and damaged it. 🤔🤔🤔🤔

[chrisharohau]

The Spanish have already explore all our Pacific islands right before British n others..😅😅😅😅

[thugiang]

So many hidden and mysterious stories about New Zealand ❤ it could be just a theory but fascinating and challenges our knowledge. Thank you guys

[FreedomSovereign]

You can also see Russia had explored New Zealand at the same time as well, trade and stayed for a good period too

[Kiwiana]

There are ancient Spanish artefacts here, but have been suppressed.

[bradgooch]

Portuguese Christovao Mendonca was there and the east coast of Australia in 1524, read Peter Tricketts Beyond Capricorn, also the Chinese in the 1420's, read Gavin Menzies 1422 The Year china discovered the world

[CraigSnook-od]

Blenheim they found 3 different racial backgrounds dating back 400-600 years before James Cook during excavation they found a Spanish helmet and signs of bartering or trade the items were taken by historians and taken to the museum in England. My dad used to tell our accent was called a wharfy accent developed through years of trading I guess hes right

[franushbloodaxe]

This clip looks like it has used Ron Wisemans books as a source.

[chrisblester]

My frend joe adear cut a pine tree down in the 80s in kiakoria that had more rings than tazmans time ? It was in the local papers