Stay ConnectedIn this “unashamedly homegrown” podcast we tell the story of our islands from the time before people arrived all the way up to the year 2000. Winner of the bronze award for Best Indie Podcast in the NZ Podcast Awards 2021, Silver for Best Educational and Best Indie in 2022 and Silver for Best History in 2023 and 2024.
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Copyright: © 2019 Thomas Rillstone
Tupaia is trying to navigate his way through the ever changing and deadly world of Tahitan politics as the two major leaders of the island clash. Can he come out the other side unscathed?
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Tupaia has escaped to Tahiti and soon realises that if he wants to survive he needs to make himself useful. The island is going through a rather chaotic time politically and Tupaia is known to be a smooth operator, in more ways than one, so he hitches his wagon to Purea.
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James Cook has now met Tupaia, high priest of Tahiti and advisor to the chief Purea. He is going to become very important to our story so it is worth going back a few years in the timeline to talk about his early life as well as the culture and history of the Society Islands through his eyes. This will set us up nicely for the next episode where we will explain the backstory of the conflict that the Europeans had found themselves in the middle of!
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Final preparations are underway for the Transit of Venus as the equipment is calibrated only to find shock a vital instrument is missing! Where did it go?! We also meet the other power player that Tutaha is competing against for control of the island of Tahiti; the supposed queen herself, Purea.
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Now that they had made contact, Cook quickly sets to work establishing friendly relations with the Tahitians while also trying to assess who the movers and shakers are in their society.
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The Endeavour crosses the Pacific and arrives at her destination, Tahiti. However, pretty quickly Cook is concerned that his crew will run amok so he puts procedures in place to ensure everything goes smoothly between them and the local Polynesians.
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Cook's expedition finally gets underway as they sail across the Atlantic bound for the South Pacific. But not before they get into a spot of bother in Rio along the way...
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Just as he was about to head off, James Cook was told that he had to take on a new group of people on his expedition, which caused a number of issues. However, the Royal Society were adament they come along. The leader of these late arrivals was none other than famed botanist Joesph Banks, who will become a key player in our story. Today, we talk about who he was and why he wanted to sail to the South Pacific.
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Now that we have looked at the HMB Endeavour, it's worth introducing the colourful cast of characters that will be sailing her. From lofty lieutenants all the way down to salty seamen!
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We look more closely at the ship that will be taking Cook and his crew into the Pacific for his first voyage, such as how she was acquired by the Royal Navy, her overall physical characteristics and how she was modified to be fit for this expedition.
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