Bay of Islands: The History Behind the Harbour

The Bay of Islands is where modern New Zealand began — where the first sustained contact between Māori and Europeans played out, where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, and where some of the most consequential decisions in this country's story were made. Your ship anchors in the bay and tenders you ashore at Paihia; the history starts before you even step off the wharf.

There's a name worth knowing before you arrive: Kupe. The great Polynesian navigator is credited in oral tradition with being among the first to find Aotearoa, and the north of Te Ika-a-Māui — the North Island — was settled by Māori for centuries before any European ship rounded the headland. The iwi of this region, including Ngāpuhi, were established here long before 1769, when James Cook sailed through on Endeavour and gave the bay its English name — counting, so the story goes, roughly 144 islands.

Cook's arrival marks the beginning of a rapid and complicated contact period. Within decades, the Bay of Islands had become the busiest port in the Pacific. Whalers and sealers came for supplies. Missionaries arrived — Samuel Marsden conducted the first Christian service in New Zealand on Christmas Day 1814, at Oihi Bay, on the western shores of this same harbour. Timber traders followed, then grog shops and a rough settlement at Kororāreka, which is now Russell.

Kororāreka has the distinction of being New Zealand's first European town. It earned a reputation as a lawless place — "the hellhole of the Pacific" was one description doing the rounds in the early 1800s. But it was also where Māori and Pākehā were learning to trade with each other, to negotiate, and sometimes to fight. Ngāpuhi rangatira — chiefs — were shrewd operators in those transactions. They were not passive observers of what was unfolding.

By 1840, the British Crown was concerned enough about the situation — lawlessness, competing French interests, the wellbeing of Māori — to move toward a formal arrangement. On the 6th of February that year, at Waitangi, across the estuary from Paihia, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. Forty-three rangatira signed that first day. Over the following months, over 500 signatures were gathered across the country.

The Treaty remains the founding document of New Zealand. It is also, still, a document in debate. The English and Māori versions differ in ways that matter enormously — particularly around the word tino rangatiratanga, which the Māori text uses to guarantee chiefs authority over their lands and people. Those differences have shaped New Zealand's legal and political landscape ever since, and the debate is not historical. It is live and continuing.

Waitangi itself sits a short distance from the Paihia tender wharf. The Treaty Grounds are held by the Waitangi National Trust and include the Treaty House — the original home of British Resident James Busby — Te Whare Rūnanga, the meeting house completed in 1940 to mark the centenary of the Treaty, and a large waka taua, a ceremonial war canoe, which is one of the largest in the country. If you go — and it is worth the walk — go with a guide from the site. The carvings in Te Whare Rūnanga represent iwi from across Aotearoa, and they carry meaning that deserves someone to read them for you.

Russell, the former Kororāreka, is a short ferry ride from Paihia and holds its own layer of history. Christ Church there, built in 1836, is the oldest surviving church in New Zealand. Its exterior walls still carry musket ball marks from Hōne Heke's attack in 1845 — the first armed conflict between Māori and the Crown after the Treaty was signed. Heke cut down the British flagstaff on Maiki Hill four times. The flagstaff standing there now is the fifth.

The Pompallier Mission, also in Russell, tells the story of the French Catholic missionaries who established a printing house here in the 1840s to produce religious texts in te reo Māori. It is a careful restoration, and the building itself is the oldest surviving industrial building in New Zealand.

The tender ride into Paihia takes a few minutes. The history you're arriving into took centuries to accumulate. Come with a little of that in mind, and the bay will give you more than a pleasant afternoon.

The Waitangi National Trust website carries current visiting information, entry fees, and guided tour options: waitangi.org.nz

Sources

• Waitangi National Trust — waitangi.org.nz
• Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (Pompallier Mission, Christ Church Russell) — heritage.org.nz