WHISPERS OF AOTEAROA GA Tour Leg 1

Leg 1 — NZAA → NZNP

Auckland → Kerikeri (Bay of Islands)

Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, sits atop ancient volcanic land. Kerikeri lies in the Bay of Islands, one of the first landing places of Māori settlers and later European explorers.

The First Arrivals

The story begins not with engines—but with canoes.

Long before Auckland’s skyline rose, Polynesian navigators crossed the Pacific in waka, guided by stars, ocean currents, and memory. They named this land Aotearoa, after the long white cloud that signaled its presence.

As you depart Auckland and head north, you follow their path. The Bay of Islands appears scattered like stepping stones across the sea—this is where Māori iwi (tribes) first established deep roots.

Kerikeri welcomes you into a place where first contact between Māori and Europeans would later reshape the nation. But beneath that history lies something older—stories of Kupe, the great navigator said to have first discovered these shores.