An Iberian Aoteroa/New Zealand?

Is/was it possible?

I'm thinking of a POD circa maybe mid to late 1500s where Spanish or Portugese interests kick start European involvement in New Zealand a good 250 years before they did in OTL. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

You'd need to find something to interest them in New Zealand. They had plenty of land in the Americas, and the Maori weren't exactly rolling in spices, gold and silver (which is a very good thing for them).

There was indeed plenty of gold and other minerals awaiting discovery. Timber and plenty of room for ranching and there had been certain efforts by Spanish to colonise the Pacific by certain elements who were deemed "unrequired in South America, namely young aimless sorts who needed an outlet for adventure and seeking of fortune.

At this time the Southern portions of New Zealand remained rather unpopulated due to a lack of available foodstuffs. The earlier introduction of European/South American crops and food would allow for a thriving settlement.

In 1500-1600 I'm not sure that Maori had "infilled" the North Island/northern North Island to quite the extent they had by British contact in the late 17th. They might have, but given that it seems that proper Maori settlement of the country began in the 13th C

New Zealand is also significantly further south than most of the Spanish/Portuguese interests. It's not useful as a way-stop a la Guam, so any colonization would essentially have to be for its own sake, which means any trade would have to be lucrative enough to justify sending a galleon down that way every year or so. Note that even the Caroline Islands weren't settled by Spain until the 1880s (and they had claimed them in the 17th century); New Zealand seems likely to be far less of a priority. There is plenty of land in the Americas that would be more useful to settle.

There were some mineral resources, but a) other than jade, I'm not sure how much of it the Maori exploited (especially in the 16th/17th centuries), and b) it's vastly less than the Spanish can get from their New World colonies or trade with China. There's also the fact that the Maori fit exactly the profile of "natives that the Spanish will decide it's better to leave alone rather than conquer" a la the Mapuche et al. (highly militaristic, remote, not building cities of gold, tending to low population densities).

How about Spanish or Portugese setting out as individuals, family groups or in other groups and set themselves up as overlords in parts of New Zealand that they either conquered themselves or establishing themselves before any major Maori presence. I believe this occurred did this in Eithiopia where over the course off a few decades they managed to carve themselves out sizeable holding and served as an elite force for the Eithiopian emperor against Muslim/Ottoman attack.

Maybe some just choose a quieter life after the slaughter in the Americans or fear of the Inquisition. Just throwing some ideas around.