Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was responsible for the naming of New Zealand, as well as being the namesake for Tasmania.
Bass Strait is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay.
The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) across and about 2,800 km (1,700 mi) from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, who in 1642 was the first known person to cross it. British explorer Lieutenant James Cook later extensively navigated the Tasman Sea in the 1770s during his three voyages of exploration.
A sea kayak or touring kayak is a kayak used for the sport of paddling on open waters of lakes, bays, and oceans. Sea kayaks are seaworthy small boats with a covered deck and the ability to incorporate a spray deck. They trade off the manoeuvrability of whitewater kayaks for higher cruising speed, cargo capacity, ease of straight-line paddling (tracking), and comfort for long journeys.
Trans-Tasman is an adjective used primarily to signify the relationship between Australia and New Zealand. The term refers to the Tasman Sea, which lies between the two countries. For example, trans-Tasman commerce refers to commerce between these two countries.
Tasman Empire Airways Limited (1940–1965), better known as TEAL, is the former name of Air New Zealand.
Foreign relations between neighbouring countries Australia and New Zealand, also referred to as Trans-Tasman relations, are extremely close. Both countries share a British colonial heritage as antipodean Dominions and settler colonies, and both are part of the core Anglosphere. New Zealand sent representatives to the constitutional conventions which led to the uniting of the six Australian colonies but opted not to join. In the Boer War and in both world wars, New Zealand soldiers fought alongside Australian soldiers. In recent years the Closer Economic Relations free trade agreement and its predecessors have inspired ever-converging economic integration. Despite some shared similarities, the cultures of Australia and New Zealand also have their own sets of differences and there are sometimes differences of opinion which some have declared as symptomatic of sibling rivalry. This often centres upon sports and in commercio-economic tensions, such as those arising from the failure of Ansett Australia and those engendered by the formerly long-standing Australian ban on New Zealand apple imports.
Tasman Cargo Airlines Pty. Limited is an Australian cargo airline with the head office in Sydney, Australia. It operates scheduled international cargo services on behalf of DHL and ad hoc domestic and international cargo charters. Its corporate headquarters are at Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport in the Sydney suburb of Mascot. The fleet of aircraft are Boeing 767 based at different airports in Australia and New Zealand.
Kiwi Travel International Airlines was a New Zealand–based airline which pioneered discount flights between secondary airports in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. The airline was established by Ewan Wilson and several associates. Wilson was CEO and was later convicted on four counts of fraud.
Ocean rowing is the sport of rowing across oceans. Some ocean rowing boats can hold as many as fourteen rowers; however, the most common ocean rowboats are designed for singles, doubles, and fours.
Jetconnect Ltd. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas with its head office located in Auckland, New Zealand. Originally established in July 2002 as a New Zealand–based airline, the company stopped operating as an airline in 2018 but continues to employ pilots and cabin crew based at Auckland and Wellington airports. Crew employed by Jetconnect operate Qantas flights on Trans-Tasman services between Australia and New Zealand, with cabin crew also operating on Qantas long-haul flights alongside Australian-based crew.
Peter Bray became, in 2001, the third person known to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone in a kayak as well as the first one to paddle west to east and also the first one not using sails to help his paddling. He documented his expedition in the book Kayak Across the Atlantic in 2004.
Andrew McAuley was an Australian mountaineer and sea kayaker. He is presumed to have died following his disappearance at sea while attempting to kayak 1600 km (994 mi) across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand in February 2007.
Paul Caffyn is a sea kayaker based in Runanga on the West Coast of New Zealand. He has completed a number of supported, unsupported, solo and group expeditions by sea kayak in various locations around the world. He has been described as follows by John Dowd:
Amongst sea kayakers Paul Caffyn is almost in a class of his own. For the longest time after he finished his awesome solo circumnavigation of Australia the silence was deafening: few of his peers knew the significance of what he had done, and perhaps those who understood felt lost in his shadows. Not only is Paul's Australian adventure a pinnacle for sea kayaking, it should eventually be recognized as one of the great small voyages of recent history along with those of Slocum, Shackleton and Franz Romer."
Freya Hoffmeister is a German business owner and athlete who holds several sea kayaking endurance records. In 2009 she completed a circumnavigation of Australia solo and unassisted, becoming the first woman and only the second person to do so. Freya holds the fastest record for completing this trip On 3 May 2015, she became the first person to solo circumnavigate the continent of South America.
Tenacity on the Tasman is a 2009 documentary film about adventurer Olly Hicks's attempt to circumnavigate the world in a rowboat. The film premiered at the ODEON Leicester Square on November 19, 2009, becoming the first independently distributed documentary to premiere at the theater. The film was produced and directed by independent filmmaker George Olver through his production company Pendragon Productions, and distributed globally as part of the Adventure Film Festival.
Solo is a 2008 documentary film directed by David Michod and Jennifer Peedom. It narrates the story of Australian adventurer Andrew McAuley who attempted a solo kayak crossing from Tasmania to New Zealand.
Cas and Jonesy are an Australian duo known for being explorers, endurance athletes, motivational speakers, as well as a writer and documentary producer respectively. Their given names are James John Castrission and Justin Roderick Jones.
Oliver "Olly" Hicks is a British ocean rower, kayaker, explorer and inspirational speaker. He holds three world records for adventure. He is best known for his solo ocean rows and extreme kayak voyages. He first made the headlines after his solo trans-Atlantic voyage in 2005 when he became the first and currently only person to row from America to England solo and the youngest person to row any ocean solo. Hicks has rowed and paddled over 7,000 miles on ocean expeditions since 2005. Over 6,000 miles and 220 days alone at sea.
