The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook, with Sam Neill

by Meaghan Wilson Anastasios

A rich, complex and engaging account of Cook's voyages across the Pacific, from actor and raconteur Sam Neill.Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768, just over 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed.The Pacific with Sam Neill is the companion book to the Foxtel documentary series of the same name, in which actor and raconteur Sam Neill takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself.Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps, engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice and peoples.Fascinating, engaging, fresh and vital - this is history ... but not as you know it.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel, Australia, Biography

464 pages, Paperback

Published November 18, 2019

About the author

Meaghan Wilson Anastasios is a reformed archaeologist, historian, university lecturer, and art auctioneer who has done the logical thing and segued her chequered past into a career as an author and screenwriter. With highlights including exploring a Turkish ghost town with Russell Crowe, and making Sam Neill eat walrus meat, she hasn’t entertained many second thoughts about the career change.

Meaghan’s works in print include the best-selling adaptation of Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner; her novels, The Honourable Thief and The Emerald Tablet; and the bestselling non-fiction book, The Pacific: In the Footsteps of Captain Cook.
Meaghan’s latest novel, Sunday Riley is All Out of F*cks to Give, is being published in 2026. It’s a funny, sweary read about a woman of a certain age who upends her life and heads off to the Greek Islands in search of good times. It’s a departure for Meaghan because, well, she’s also completely out of f*cks to give. This is Meaghan without guardrails.

Some of the serious things Meaghan has written for screen include The Pacific in the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill, Shane Delia’s Spice Journey, and Gourmet Farmer Afloat. Loot, a documentary series she created and wrote about the connection between organized crime, terrorism, and the trade in stolen antiquities screens locally and internationally.

Meaghan lives in Melbourne with her screenwriter husband, putting paid to the conventional wisdom that creative couples are a recipe for disaster, though they are looking forward to laughing together all the way to the poorhouse. With two children who look to be joining them on the professional creative rollercoaster, plus a dog and three cats, life in Meaghan’s household is never dull.

Reviews

[Angelique Simonsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. I enjoyed the varying perceptions of Cook from the different islands he stopped at. I'm so glad this book agrees that Cook did not discover any of these places. Generally he was not the one to be causing the problems but the aftermath of his opening the doors to the British colonization machine. New Zealand did get off quite lightly compared with other places

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So interesting. Totally engaging and captivating, certainly not at all like the usually dry history tomes of previous histories I have read.
This leaves the reader with a lot to think on and reconsider. History as was taught to me in school many many many years ago has been revisited and revised in my thinking as more voices have been allowed to join into the telling and this story adds to that mix.
I watched the tv series when it aired here and totally enjoyed it, and the story told here really fleshes out all those images and places and people featured in great detail and depth.
Read as an eaudiobook

[Helen Blunden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. It’s wonderful in that for the first time, we get different views and perspectives from the people of the Pacific (and up north near Alaska) about the impact of Cook (well, the western world) to these places that he “discovered”.

The book is a tie in with the television documentary of the same name. I read the book while watching the series but I deliberately left the last chapter out so that I could appreciate the legacy (but also because I’ll be visiting Hawaii this year to Kealakekua Bay where he died.

Highly recommended book which also made me appreciate the other perspective to this great explorer.

[Sean Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is not much about Cook's Pacific voyagers that I do not know but this book presented the major events in an entertaining and easily read way. Enjoyable read and perfect for anyone wanting an introduction into the exploration of the Pacific and the impact it had on the islanders.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read.

[Josephine Draper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice exploration of Cook's voyages through the Pacific utilising a combination of historical quotes (including from Cook's diary) and those from modern day descendants and historians. I enjoyed the way quotes were integrated seamlessly with the explanatory text, rather than being separated sections you have to read then regain your main story thread.

This book doesn't shy away from offering opinions about the behaviours of both Cook and his crew, and the people Cook meets. Not all of the actions (on both sides) appear honourable to a modern view, but this is a fair and balanced review. It offers a refreshing perspective on Polynesia in particular and makes it clear that the Polynesian nations - including Hawaii, Tahiti, Tonga, Easter Island and New Zealand - were all part of one connected society which is a concept that is still surprisingly novel.

One thing the book is very clear on is the role Cook played as an explorer versus a conqueror. Cook is often described as having discovered Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, but as this book makes clear - how can you discover a land that already had people living in it? Rather, it talks about Cook's role as a navigator, map-maker and explorer of the Pacific, and the relationships he formed with the people he met there. He was undoubtedly a strong and even-handed leader, and this book suggests that he was as fair as he could have been in dealing with the people living in the Pacific. That many Pacific nations were later colonised or claimed by European powers you could claim is due to Cook - but ultimately he was the Crown's tool only.

I felt this book was a great, accessible introduction to Cook's voyages and the lands he explored. There are some good illustrations, notably those of the ship's illustrators which explorers of those days took with them. I was particularly happy with the balanced attitude to this sometimes contentious subject matter.

[Amelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book!
As someone who grew up with the narrative of "Cook discovered", this book is a great smack across the face to remember that he was the first European to discover the wide range of First Nations People across the wider pacific, but they had been there for many generations before Europeans first thought about traveling across the oceans to places unknown.
At the same time, this book also refuses to paint Cook as the "bad guy" that some people are trying to write him as - as is reiterated many times, if it hadn't been him, it WOULD have been someone else. It was only a matter of time before someone from the other side of the world turned up.

I borrowed this from the library, but will be adding it to my wish list of books to have on my own shelf, as a counterpoint to the Euro-centric history that is still peddled a lot around the place.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this modern history - a recognition that Cook did some pretty amazing things with respect to navigation and treatment of his crew but that he didn't discover anything much at all. It's quite funny at times - sailors trading nails for sex leading to ships almost coming apart. And then serious at other times - what happens when someone gets killed because a panicky armed soldier fires on a local. It's an interesting twist on what I learned at school - asking why Cook was killed in Hawaii but the better question is how come it didn't happen earlier. Maybe the thing I found most interesting was the cultural differences of forgiveness (or tit for tat) vs. the concept of utu; the former led to a loss of mana rather than a better relationship.

[Mark Fekry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anti-Western Garbage

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was a beginners journey into the tale of the Pacific, indigenous history and Cooks exploration.
Some people will detest the way this book is really just a TV show 'narrative'. But I enjoyed that aspect and the small boxes of differing people's perspectives on specific events.
As a teacher, this book is a great start an an easy read for almost anyone, and I will be using extracts in the classroom.

[Doug Newdick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The really good thing about this book is that it gives plenty of space to the voices of indigenous people from the Pacific. It traces the voyages of Cook and then looks at the impacts that his contact and subsequent colonisation have had on the peoples of the region. This is a narrative that is largely absent from mainstream (white, European) presentations of Cook's story and discussions of the Pacific in general.

[Suzesmum · Rating 4 out of 5]

36🎧🏝PACIFIC 🏝This was an interesting choice for an audiobook. I watch the Netflix series and loved it, and wasn’t really sure what I was getting. But audiobooks from the Pacific are few and far between. Disappointed it’s not narrated by Sam Neill, this is a hybrid of a historical text, beautifully researched and the script for the series of the same name. I loved this comprehensive Cook’s Tour of the Pacific (pun intended 😝). I feel like I know the man intimately.

[Bex Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this would be a trashy book about sailing, but it turned out to be a fascinating account of the first European contact in the Pacific, focused on the initial encounters with the indigenous Polynesian people and the decimation of culture in the years to follow. Also interesting to learn about naval leaders in the 18th century and the priorities of the British government.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book I won at work, this was rather interesting. I barely knew anything about Captain Cook's three voyages, so it was good to learn about where he traveled and the civilizations he encountered. Also it's always interesting to learn more of your country's history.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfect travel companion!

[Christopher Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book to accompany an equally interesting TV series.

[Gregory Sale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly remarkable book puts Cook, his journeys, his impact into perspective. Well researched, well written as an Australian I am so glad I read this book.

[Darragh R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read. Told of both the good and bad side of Cook's many journeys.

[Chelsea R.H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come soon

[Anwar Maricar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very adventurous book and interesting. Simply enticing.

[Christine Sulerzyski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Learnt so much!

[Donald Pryde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as the RV series but still a good read. I still can’t get over the hate people hold for a man who died 300 odd years ago.

[Umberto Calvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly exciting, a very well written adventure-history-ethnographic book. It has it all, pathos, plots, misadventures, successes

[Stephen Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a fantastic read, I read it in no time. It covers a lot of ground - all of Cook’s 3 voyages, in 438 pages, that’s a lot of ground to cover, so well done them. His journeys to Taihiti, New Zealand, Tonga, Easter Island, America, the Northwest Passage, Haiwaii. It manages to cover all the major events, some of the characters, the hardships at sea. It was interesting to hear about Cook’s abilities - from a poor background working himself up to an excellent navigator and sailor, an excellent self taught surveyor, an innovator in the treatment of his crew eg bringing on his journeys barrels of lime to keep away scurvy, and at times a man with honourable intent with indigenous populations - it is more what followed after him that was the problem. It was interesting to read how the ship to keep stocking up along the way which necessitated contact with local populations. He got further through the ice of the NW Passage than some modern boats had managed! It had maps in, which was good because I picked up a 1970s coffee book about Famous Explorers and it didn’t have any maps in (which I found strange for a book on explorers). There is a TV series to accompany this, and it does feel a bit like reading the TV show, with people’s quotes breaking up the text. Not sure if I like that, you’d be reading an account of something important then Sam Neill would pop up with some kiwi truism, generally welcome and he is on the front of the book I guess. Large amount of very cool photos presumably taken during the TV show shoot.

[Janet Frame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and perspective. Walking through history and time with Sam Neill.

Thanks, Sam, for signing this book for me this year :-) xo

[St Stephen's C C]

Captain James Cook first set sail to the Pacific in 1768 - 250 years ago. These vast waters, one third of the earth's surface, were uncharted - but not unknown. A rich diversity of people and cultures navigated, traded, lived and fought here for thousands of years. Before Cook, the Pacific was disconnected from the power and ideas of Europe, Asia and America. In the wake of Cook, everything changed.
The Pacific with Sam Neill is the companion book to the Foxtel documentary series of the same name, in which actor and raconteur Sam Neill takes a deeply personal, present-day voyage to map his own understanding of James Cook, Europe's greatest navigator, and the immense Pacific Ocean itself.
Voyaging on a wide variety on vessels, from container ships to fishing trawlers and sailing boats, Sam crosses the length and breadth of the largest ocean in the world to experience for himself a contemporary journey in Cook's footsteps, engaging the past and present in both modern and ancient cultural practice and peoples.