Part of Captain Cook’s mission on his three-month sojourn in 1769 was to record the transit of Venus across the face of the sun in an attempt to calculate the distance between the sun and the Earth. Pointe Vénus, the promontory that marks the eastern end of Matavai Bay (Baie de Matavai), was the site of Cook’s observatory.
Today Pointe Vénus is a popular beach stop. There are shady trees, a stretch of lawn, a black-sand beach, a couple of souvenir shops and an impressive lighthouse (1867).
