Cape Maria van Diemen

{{Short description|Westernmost point of the North Island of New Zealand}}

{{other uses|Van Diemen (disambiguation)}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

Image:NZ-C MvDiemen.png

Cape Maria van Diemen is the westernmost point of the North Island of New Zealand. A tombolo, it was originally an island composed mainly of basaltic-andesitic lava flows and dykes.Nicholson, K. N. (2006). [http://www.agu.org/meetings/wp06/wp06-sessions/wp06_V41C.html Unraveling the Complex Volcanic History of Northland New Zealand (abstract)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029185050/http://www.agu.org/meetings/wp06/wp06-sessions/wp06_V41C.html |date=29 October 2013 }}. Drifting sands joined it to the rest of the North Island during the late Pleistocene.

The cape was named by Abel Tasman, (first European explorer to discover New Zealand) after the wife of his patron, Anthony van Diemen, Governor General of Batavia (now Jakarta) in January 1643, on the same voyage of discovery during which he named Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). It is - along with the Three Kings Islands - one of only two geographic features in New Zealand to retain the names given to them by Tasman.