What if the Goths ended up in OTL New Zealand?

Okay, I'm REALLY spit balling here, and I know its incredibly unlikely. But, hey, why not.

The Goths, as a group, decide to flee the Danube frontier to escape the Huns. Unable to find sanctuary in the Balkans for whatever reason, they head East and are invited into Persia by the Sassanian Shah for .... reasons. Due to their Christian faith, they remain a self-contained and culturally isolated group, forever on the march, eventually coming to fill a place in Eastern society (Lets say, initially Persia and India) that is akin to the Romani people in Europe in OTL.

Over time, this group comes to be ostracized and persecuted throughout the region. This only reinforced their own unique cultural identity, but puts the group under a fair amount of pressure from secular authorities. Hoping to find a place free from oppression (or, maybe just having gain some wanderlust and wanting to explore) a small group of Goths set sail from a south Indian port. They island hop down until they come to Australia but find the land populated and the Aboriginies hostile (because sometimes First Contacts don't turn out all that well). They find themselves in New Zealand, wintering and making repairs to their small fleet and then return to India where they spread stories of an empty land on the southern borders of the world.

A few intrepid families decide "Hey, that remote land on the other side of a really dangerous journey sounds better than staying HERE!" and depart. Nothing is heard from them for a few years until a subsequent voyage discovers their small colony. Realizing that the land was fertile and safe, and facing an ever more hostile environment in India and Persia, a few more families begin to make the trip. New Zealand ends up being settled over the course of 60 years or so. Not ALL of our migratory Goths settle down in New Zealand, of course, but enough do that natural population growth takes over - and the more successful the colony is, the more migrants are willing to risk the dangerous voyage.

Okay - very, very, unlikely. But it doesn't fall into ASB-land, although the world that this tale is taking place in is going to be very very different then our own.
 
This is the most wonderfully crackpot thing I've ever heard in Before 1900. Not to be cruel - I really like it - but OP, how did you come up with this and how could you possibly think it wasn't ASB?
 
Maybe a Challenge for the Trocharians ?
This has been in my mind for quite a while and I wanted this to be discussed. The fact that New Zealand was not settled by any humans until around 1280, makes it an already interesting spot for an AH, and I also have quite some linking for the Goths, so I figured, why not combine both?

I know it might be improbable but not impossible.

To start I had something like this in mind with a PoD arount 375 when the Huns invaded Eastern Europe.

  • Instead of only the Thervingi/Visigoths crossing the Danube into Moesia, they are acompanied by the Greuthungi/Ostrogoths and the Gepids.
    • According to my history Prof each of the migrating Gentes of this time had around 100k people on average with the Lombards beeing the largest group with 150k (all including women, children and elderly people).
    • Alltogether the Goths (Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Gepids) should/could have up to 300k people.
  • Emperor Valens figures it would be impossible to supply 300k new settlers in Moesia and decides to ship them to Egypt instead and settle them there at the Suez isthmus as foederati.
  • Some years later in 380/390 (what would be realistic?) after all Goths have arrived in Egypt and have become Arian Christians by this point, their leading Bishop suffers a heat stroke. The Bishop (lets just assume it's Wulfila) recovers and claims he had a vision from God, who told him to leave Egypt and search for new Land across the sea (maybe ASB, maybe it has something to do with Wulfila reading the Exodus before his stroke, who knows?).
  • Anyway Wulfila is succesfull in convincing the majority of the Goths to sail the seas and search for unoccupied Land. The Goths start to migrate again and move south to the roman red sea ports and capture a large enough fleet of Trading Ships, on their way they've raided a wee bit and captured livestock, supplies, seeds and seed stocks. Also, as with other migrations, some people decide to stay, while other people like (former/free) slaves join the goths. Then the goths disappear from western history - for now.
  • An apropriate amount of time later the gothic fleet appears in India, trading and occasionally raiding, when possible or necessary. In Southern India the gothic clergy and nobility visits the grave of Saint Thomas and prays for further directions.
  • Again later the gothic fleet passes the Indonesian Islands. Following rumors of Islands in the south east, inhabited by strange Birds, the finally find OTL New Zealand.
So let's assume for the sake of this thread all of the above happens in this or a similar way. At this point there are some important questions to be asked:

  • What happens in Europe next, after the goths disappeared? Will the roles the goths played OTL be filled by other peoples/gentes? Will Islam still rise, or is Mohammed butterflied away? I'd assume if Islam still happens, Europe up to the 6th or 7th century wouldn't look all that different. Lombards would still end up in Italy, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, etc. would still go to Britain, the Franks would dominate Gaul, and Muslims would have conquered all of northern Africa and most of Iberia. Instead of Gothic Influences the Spaniards would have vandalic and alan influences.
  • How far could the Goths expand in and around New Zealand? North, South and Steward Island are given, but what about Norfolk and Chatham island? What about the subantarctic Islands of OTL Australia and NZL (Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands etc.)? Would "Colonies" in Australia be feasible at one point?
  • What about the Maori? When finally Polynesians appear in NZL, would it lead to War or would they be integrated into Gothic Culture?
  • How would the Goths organize? One Kingdom? Some kind of tribal Confederation? Or a bunch of Petty Kingdoms?
  • How would Gothic Culture and Gothic-Arian-Christianity develop?
  • And lastly, how would a first Contact with other Europeans play out?
 
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