Equally important, Cook explored and mapped out New Zealand, again paving the way for colonization and paving the way for Crash Course World History to make an announcement. We did it! We finally talked about Australia and New Zealand! We're a real world history class! Huzzah! Now all you Australians have to shut up about how we've never mentioned you. Right, so in his voyages, Cook also determined that there was no such thing as the mythical continent of Terra Australis, said to exist here, and he helped to dispel the idea of a Northwest Passage, which Europeans had been obsessed with for centuries.