The 144 islands that make up the Bay of Islands, New Zealand make up an amazing aquatic playground for sailing, swimming, diving and dolphin-spotting. Having stumbled upon a great self-contained apartment available for a couple of nights at a great price yesterday, we were lucky enough to do some exploring here. The spacious yet cozy unit was complete with a living room, kitchen with nice amenities to cook, cute bedroom, and a bathroom with the best shower I’ve had in months! We set out early to check out our new surroundings.
We spent most of the day in Russell, a ferry ride across the bay. The area was already a well-established settlement (Maori) by the time Captain Cook visited in 1769. The Maori name for it, Kororareka came from when a wounded chief asked for penguin broth. When he tasted it, he said, “Kareka te korora.” or “How sweet is the penguin.” In the early 1800s, whalers found the spot to be a great place for gathering provisions and resting. This led to it’s more seedy reputation as a drunken, rowdy place worth of the title “Hellhole of the Pacific.” These days Russell is peaceful and quiet, with lots of history and water-based attractions. We enjoyed looking around on the main street and beyond, with a visit to a church that still had musket holes in it from an early land conflict. Its cemetery was the final resting place of a whaler from Nantucket (among others)!
A hike took us up historic Flagstaff Hill (which Hone Heke–a Māori rangatira and a war leader in Northern New Zealand–cut down 4 times) and out to Tapeka Point. The north end of Tapeka is now a historical reserve, but it was once a fortified Maori “pa” that would have served as a lookout and refuge. The views from up here were spectacular. We returned via the coastal route, which included some scrambling over mussel-clad rocks as we did our best to beat the tide.
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