Ferdinand Hochstetter’s trip to Coromandel and Waiheke Island, 7–13 June 1859

This paper presents an annotated English translation of Ferdinand Hochstetter’s handwritten German-language manuscript diary from the period 7-13 June 1859 when he travelled on Captain John Grundy’s cutter Maid of the Mill to Coromandel and Waiheke Island in the company of Charles Heaphy and Julius Haast. Heaphy, explorer, surveyor, landscape artist and expert on the Coromandel goldfields, furnished Hochstetter with valuable information, and his maps, watercolours and pencil sketches from the excursion add visual evidence to the text. The diary is complemented by Auckland War Memorial Museum’s archival volume (MS-18) of receipts from Hochstetter’s visit and geological survey commissioned by the Auckland Provincial Government.