Paihia

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Paihia

Holiday town 23 km south-east of Kerikeri with a 2001 population of 1,836. Well sited on the inner reaches of the Bay of Islands, it has a rich history. Waitangi is immediately to the north while Russell is on the opposite shore, reached by passenger ferry, and by car ferry from nearby Ōpua.

Missionaries
The Church Missionary Society established a mission in 1823 (following one at Kerikeri in 1819), and set up New Zealand’s first printing press in 1835. Paihia’s residents witnessed and recorded the events leading to the establishment of colonial government in 1840. The mission closed in 1850 and by 1890 there were a mere handful of houses and a church in the settlement. St Paul’s, the present stone church, was built in 1925 on the site of three earlier churches as a memorial to missionaries Henry and William Williams.

Holidaymakers
The holiday town dates from the 1930s. The restored Treaty House at nearby Waitangi was an attraction, and a road built from Ōpua made the town much easier to reach from the south. After the Second World War it became particularly popular with Aucklanders, and rivalled Russell (still reached mainly by ferry) in size. In the early 1960s a hotel opened, catering to well-off visitors, while the town had beach houses, motor camps and motels. It is a base for deep-sea fishing, boating and for visiting sites of historical interest throughout the Bay of Islands.

Waitangi
Location 3 km north-west of Paihia. At its centre is one of the country’s most spectacular and historic places. James Busby, British Resident, took up residence on the north side of the entrance to the Waitangi River in 1833. In 1834 Māori chiefs gathered at Waitangi to select a national flag, and in 1835 to sign a declaration of the country’s independence. On 6 February 1840 Waitangi was the site for the signing of a treaty between Māori and William Hobson, representing the British Crown.

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The Treaty House
The Waitangi Treaty House and grounds, together with an additional 1,000-acre land block, were gifted to the nation in 1932 by the governor general, Lord Bledisloe, and his wife. His intention was to create a national historic site to mark the country’s foundation document. A trust board was set up, the dilapidated house restored, and the grounds gradually developed. The Treaty House underwent extensive renovations in 1989–90.

Waitangi Day
Celebrations were held in 1934 to acknowledge the gift, and in 1940 to mark the treaty’s 100th anniversary. In the Treaty House grounds a whare rūnanga (meeting house) representing all tribes was built for the 1940 celebration. The celebrations led to a recognition of the historic significance of Te Tii marae at the Waitangi River mouth. Māori had erected a treaty monument there in 1880. Both commemorations brought thousands of visitors to the quiet Northland area, and established an annual tradition to mark the birth of the nation. The date of 6 February was first commemorated as a national holiday in 1974.

Protests
Since the 1970s Waitangi Day celebrations have been an occasion for protest by Māori and some Pākehā. In addition to concerns over land loss, protestors wanted acceptance of Māoritanga (Māori values), acknowledgement of Māori as tangata whenua (people of the land) and, latterly, Māori sovereignty and speedy settlement of land grievances. In the early 2000s it was clear that for many New Zealanders, the treaty had meaning far beyond its historical significance as the nation’s founding document.



The best little tourist resort in the north.