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New Zealand officially became a separate colony within the British Empire, severing its link to New South Wales. North, South, and Stewart islands were to be known respectively as the provinces of New Ulster, New Munster, and New Leinster. William Hobson had been appointed Britain's consul to New Zealand in 1839.

By the mid-17th century, the existence of land in the south referred to as Terra Australis was generally known and understood by the Europeans, and incrementally, its shores were observed and mapped. Van Diemen's Land, an island off the south coast of Australia now called Tasmania, was identified in 1642 by Dutch mariner Abel Tasman, and a few months later, the intrepid Dutchman would add New Zealand to the map of the known world.