Polynesian explorers - exploration of New Zealand. Charting the Land on the Ocean: Pacific Exploration, 1520-1876. A Special Collections exhibition, University of Otago Library, Dunedin, New Zealand. The world’s first seafarers – Pacific migrations. The Pacific was the first ocean to be explored and settled, and its history is one of voyages.
New Zealand, isolated far to the south, was the last substantial land mass to be reached. There were two distinct voyaging periods. Ancient voyaging: from Asia to Near Oceania The origins of the Pacific’s diverse peoples can be traced back along seaways to mainland Asia.