[exist]

I believe their migration went east-west, not the other way ‘round. New Zealand, then, would be amongst the last to be populated — this synchronizes properly with commonsense and what little is known of Maori history.

But even if they went West to East-- that still means they would have populated a bunch of tiny islands but skilled Australia. So...why?

Now I'm going to have to Google this. It's supposed to be my lunch break.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> But even if they went West to East— that still means they would have populated a bunch of tiny islands but skilled Australia. So...why?

I’m not convinced that the Maori did skip Australia: it’s quite possible that they checked ou the East Coast, maybe even traded a bit. But, having found New Zealand, which had plenty of everything they needed (including room to live) why would they colonize Australia, which would have little or nothing of interest to them?

My view is that land-and-food pressure arising from growing populations on small islands drove the migrations. New Zealand had plenty of both.