Bay of Islands

Wednesday, March 30

The Bay of Islands lies north. Its calm aqua waters are a famous harbor. Paihia and Russell are its communities. The bay is where New Zealand, the colony, began. Captain Cook found it welcoming, just as the Maori did in when they arrived. The bay's history of rowdy sailors, whalers, and other ne'er-do-wells made Russell the "hellhole of the Pacific." When Darwin visited in 1835, he noted as much. In former times, when New Zealand was Aotearoa, a Maori fortified village there was called Kororareka or Sweet Penguin.

We take a ferry ride from Paihia, where we are staying, to Russell and spend the afternoon visiting small museums and walking along the beach. I find a fragment of an old dish, white with brown painted decoration. One museum had so many such artifacts, it had no interest in mine. These days visitors to Paihia and Russell learn history. Close to Paihia is where the Waitangi Treaty was signed in 1840. That treaty is still the basis for Maori-Pakeha (European settler) relations.

We did not swim with the dolphins, fish for marlin, jetboat, parasail, kayak, or dive the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior.