• Māori legend Kupe (from Hawaiki) after a long chase across the ocean and through Ruakawa Moana caught Te Wheke-a-Muturangi in Tory channel and slayed it.
•  Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, first sighted New Zealand in 1964. Powerful tidal streams through Cook Strait forced him to cut his trip short and he was left with misconception that the Cook Strait was a bight closed to the east. He named it Zeehans bight after one of the vessels in his expedition.
• Cook Strait region was settled in the early 19th century, by whalers mainly in bases in the Marlborough Sounds and in and the Kapiti area. Whaling was good in this region because of its use as a whale migration route. From the late 1820s to the 1960s Arapaoa Island was the primary whaling base for whaling in the Sounds and Strait. Perano head on the east coast of the island had the main base for the area.
• In Wellington, Whanganui and Nelson more substantial settlements were built in the 1840s. They saw the Cook Strait as a lot larger than we do, for the people of the tinme it stretched from Taranaki to Cape Campbell on the South Islands east coast.
• Pelorus Jack was a famous Risso’s dolphin which escorted ships around the Strait from 1888 to 1912 when he disappeared. He was mostly seen in Admiralty Bay near the French pass, a shipping route between Wellington and Nelson. In 1904 he was subject to an “assassination attempt” by a man aboard the SS Penguin who tried to shoot him. Following the incident a law was enacted to protect Pelorus Jack. He remained protected up until he disappeared in 1912. It is believed that Pelorus Jack is the first individual sea creature to be protected by law in the world.

• WWII: At times when New Zealand feared invasion, coastal fortifications were built in various places in the region. Two 23cm gun installation were built on Wrights Hill behind Wellington these had a 29km range and could reach across Cook Strait. Also fifteen 16cm gun instalments were set up around the Strait. Along the Makara coastline and at the entrance to the Marlborough Sounds. The remnants of most of these can still be seen.
• A number of ships have been wrecked with significant loss of life. The most famous is the Wahine, it is not the worst but because of its location it was able to be broadcasted to the world.

It sank on April 10th 1968 due to winds in excess of 250kph and large swells. It was pushed onto Barret Reef where it was stuck, Captain    Robertson gave the order to abandon ship, later the ship capsized. Of the 734 people on board 53 were killed by drowning, exposure, or from injuries sustained on the stricken vessel. The Waine Memorial Park in Seatoun marks the disaster with one of the ships a bow thruster, anchor and chain from the ship (one link for each victim), and a memorial plaque.