Doubtless Bay is a bay on the east coast of the

Northland Region Northland (), officially the Northland Region, is the northernmost of New Zealand's 16 regions of New Zealand, local government regions. New Zealanders sometimes refer to it as the Winterless North because of its mild climate all throughout t ...

, north-east of

Kaitaia Kaitaia () is a town in the Far North District of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupōuri Peninsula, about 160 km northwest of Whangārei. It is the last major settlement on State Highway 1. Ahipara Bay, the southern end of Te Oneroa-a- ...

, in New Zealand. It extends from Knuckle Point on

Karikari Peninsula The Karikari Peninsula on the east coast of the far north of Northland, New Zealand, is between Rangaunu Harbour to the west, and Doubtless Bay to the southeast. It is a right-angled land mass of two relatively distinct parts. The rocky north ...

in the north to Berghan Point at Hihi in the south. There are rocky headlands, backed by many extensive beaches, such as

Tokerau Beach Tokerau Beach is a settlement on the northwestern side of Doubtless Bay on the Karikari Peninsula of Northland, New Zealand. Demographics Statistics New Zealand describes Tokerau Beach as a rural settlement. It covers and had an estimated po ...

Taipa Taipa ( zh, t=氹仔, ; , ) is an area in Macau, connected to Coloane through the area known as Cotai, which is largely built from reclaimed land. Located on the northern half of the island, Taipa's population is mostly suburban. Administrativ ...

Cable Bay Rotokura / Cable Bay is a bay and small settlement north-east of Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson in New Zealand. The settlement at the head of the bay is at the southern end of a thin strip of land or causeway connecting Pepin Island with the Sou ...

and

Coopers Beach Coopers Beach is a settlement on the southern side of Doubtless Bay in Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. runs through it. It is one of the Taipa-Mangonui string of settlements, separated from Cable Bay, Northland, Cable Bay on the wes ...

, and Mangonui Harbour."Doubtless Bay", An Encyclopedia of New Zealand 1966, ''Te Ara''
(retrieved 12 December 2011) A more-or-less contiguous string of settlements make up

Taipa-Mangonui Taipa-Mangonui or Taipa Bay-Mangonui is a string of small resort settlements – Taipa, Cable Bay, Coopers Beach, and Mangōnui – that lie along the coast of Doubtless Bay in the Far North District of New Zealand. They are so close together ...

, the largest urban area north of Kaitaia.

Māori discovery

Kupe Kupe was a legendary Polynesian explorer who, according to Māori oral history, was the first person to discover New Zealand. He is generally held to have been born to a father from Rarotonga and a mother from Raiatea, and probably spoke a ...

, the

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

discoverer of New Zealand, is said to have made his initial landfall at Taipa, in Doubtless Bay.Diana and Jeremy Pope, ''Mobile New Zealand Travel Guide: North Island'', 7th edition revised, Reed, Wellington, 1991, p. 69.

European contact

Doubtless Bay was named by

Captain James Cook Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He complet ...

during his first voyage of Pacific exploration in 1769. When Cook sailed past the entrance to the area, he recorded in his journal "doubtless a bay", hence the name. Poor weather prevented Cook from entering the bay proper, though a number of Māori longboats put out from shore to come alongside Cook's ship '' Endeavour'' and sell fish to her crew. Less than two weeks later, Jean-François-Marie de Surville anchored his ship the ''Saint Jean Baptiste'' in the bay. In retaliation for the theft of a longboat which had gone adrift after his ship had dragged her anchor in a storm and narrowly escaped destruction, he carried off a Māori chief and set his village on fire. While at Doubtless Bay at Christmas 1769, de Surville's chaplain Father

Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix Paul-Antoine is a French masculine given name. It may refer to: * Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé, Minister of the Interior and Territorial Collectivity of Haiti * Paul Antoine Dubois (1795-1871), French obstetrician * Paul-Antoine Giguère (1910–1987 ...

OP conducted the first Christian service in New Zealand. Doubtless Bay became the first location in New Zealand where a whaling ship visited, when in 1792 the '' William and Ann'' visited the bay. Whaling stations operated on the shores of the bay in the 19th century. The area was a centre of

kauri gum Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees (''Agathis australis''), which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, bef ...

extraction.

References

Citations

* {{Coord, -34.928164, 173.442821, display=title, format=dms Far North District Bays of the Northland Region Whaling stations in New Zealand Kauri gum