Cape Egmont is the westernmost point of Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is located close to the volcanic cone of Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont. It was named Cabo Pieter Boreels by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642, but renamed Cape Egmont by British explorer James Cook in 1769. (Note: Tasman did not sight Mount Taranaki, due to bad visibility, but Cook did, and after naming the mountain Mount Egmont, bestowed the same name on the promontory, which became the enduring name).
The Cape Egmont Lighthouse was originally constructed on Mana Island near Porirua but was relocated to Cape Egmont in 1877.
Famous quotes containing the word cape:
“Wishing to get a better view than I had yet had of the ocean, which, we are told, covers more than two thirds of the globe, but of which a man who lives a few miles inland may never see any trace, more than of another world, I made a visit to Cape Cod.... But having come so fresh to the sea, I have got but little salted.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)