What is not well known is that there were probably incursions by previous explorers into both countries, including contested evidence of Phoenicians, Egyptians, Arabs, and Indians, but almost certainly the Spanish and Portuguese.

 

Ross Wiseman has written widely on alternative theories of New Zealand history.  In his book The Amazing d'Urville Artefact: Equations of Life, he deals mainly with a Phoenician visit to the country's shores during an expedition dated at some point before A. D. 186 when a gigantic volcanic eruption, ten times greater than Krakatoa, occured.

 

Wiseman claims to have found 22 rock markings that explaining the facts surrounding this lost Phoenician settlement.

 

The tragedy is that the evidence is there but suppressed.  It seems that knowledge for knowledge's sake is just not enough these days.

 

Information paraphrased from FATE Magazine.