Jan 28 - Exploring Russell/Kororareka

Kia ora!!

We slept like logs in our fluffy, soft bed after our very busy first day of this tour. It’s a free day to do as we wish so there was no 6:00 a.m. wake up call. There will be one tomorrow. Linda, our tour director, is on a 24-hour break which will allow her to stay within her driving hour limit for the next leg of the trip.

We had breakfast with Gaynor and Bob who live just north of London, England. They too are going to be first-time grandparents in May. The hotel had designated tables for us - it appears that each tour group is assigned its own tables. Some breakfast observations: streaky bacon = regular bacon; middle bacon = back bacon; thin milk = 1% milk. I’m going to see if that thin milk really does make me thin….

Our mission for today is to go to explore Russell, the little town across the Bay of Islands from Paihia (pronounced Pie-ee-ah) where we are staying. Doug was a little leery about taking a ferry there and back, but when he saw how calm the waters were yesterday, he decided to chance it. And what a good chance it was - we had a great time over there.

First some background about Russell courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia. Russell was known as Kororareka which means “how sweet is the penguin”, a line uttered by an ailing Maoria chief after he sipped broth made from the blue penguin which used to frequent the bay. In the early 19th century, Russell/Kororareka was the first permanent European settlement and seaport in New Zealand. It is situated in the Bay of Islands, in the far north of the North Island. The town has a population of only about 1000 permanent residents along with many, many tourists and vacationers. European and American ships began visiting New Zealand in the early 1800s. The Bay of Islands offered safe anchorage. Whaling and sealing were huge industries in the area at that time. The Maori of the Bay of Islands saw the many advantages to be had by trading with these strangers. They supplied food and timber, and in return, got firearms, alcohol and other European goods. They didn’t get the respect that they felt that they were earning. The little village became known as “The Hell Hole of the Pacific” with its many brothels and grog (liquor) stores and general lawlessness. European law had no influence and Maori law was rarely enforced. Kororareka was by this time a vital supply port and supported a thriving mercantile industry, but due to its bad reputation, it was not chosen to be the capital of the Colony of New Zealand. The town was renamed Russell in honour of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord John Russell. Auckland was chosen as the capital, and the importance of Russell declined rapidly. In the 1920s, the American writer, Zane Grey who wrote adventure novels and Westerns visited Russell and fell in love with its blue waters and fabulous sport fishing. He returned many times and the area quickly became a popular destination for the rich and famous. Tourism and sport fishing are now the two major industries of the area.

We rode over on the ferry with Gaynor and Bob, and with Shannon and Tony. Tony is a retired cardiologist who knew my uncle, J.K. Wilson very well. Tony was instrumental in getting the bust made of J.K. that is at St. Mike’s Hospital in Toronto. J.K. was one of the pioneers of the heart transplant program there. Small world.

The ferry ride of about 15 minutes was smooth on this, yes, another lovely, warm, sunny day. We had signed up to do a mini-bus tour at 11:00 a.m. We asked at the ticket office where the bus would be parked and were told that it was parked right outside and that we could take the 10:00 a.m. tour if we liked. Turns out we were the ONLY ones on the 10:00 a.m. tour. Our guide and driver, Kelly, was terrific. She gave us the history of Russell and pointed out all the major sights - the oldest store in New Zealand, the oldest church in New Zealand, lovely little cottages with foundations made out of ground-up whale bones, and on and on. We then drove up to a place called Flagstaff Hill. It was here that the British flew the Union Jack during the 1840s. The Maori resented the British sovereignty, so they chopped down the flagstaff three times. The town of Kororareka/Russell was sacked by Hōne Heke, a Maori chief, after diversionary raids drew away the British defenders. The flagstaff was felled for the fourth time at the commencement of the Battle of Kororareka, and the inhabitants fled aboard British ships, which then shelled and destroyed most of the houses. The views from up there were spectacular. You need more than one set of eyes to truly drink in the beauty of this country. The most expensive holiday accommodation in all of New Zealand, the Eagles Nest, is close by there - each night is a mere $2000 NZD. Maybe we’ll book it next time……

After our tour, we had ice cream, because being a tourist is a hungry job and we wanted to support the local dairy industry. A favourite flavour of ice cream here is Hoki Poki - vanilla with lumps of honeycomb toffee. The stuff is deadly delicious.

We walked and walked and walked all over the town. We visited the very good Russell Museum. They have a one-fifth scale model of Captain James Cook’s ship Endeavour. Cook was the first to circumnavigate New Zealand and prove that it was not attached to Australia.

We found a lovely little bakery and had a ham and cheese croissant followed by ginger cookies. I washed it all down with Bundaberg lemonade from Australia - we drove very close to Bundaberg when we visited Australia in 2016. Yum.

We sat by the water’s edge for a while, watching people enjoy the sunshine and the water, and watching teenager sea gulls giving their mother a hard time. She took off. You go girl. Good entertainment while we waited for the 2:00 p.m. ferry. Another smooth crossing brought us back to Paihia.

We found the grocery store and picked up sandwiches for dinner and some granola bars for tomorrow morning. Lunch is going to be very late tomorrow so the bars should tide us over. We have found that NZ is NOT a salad country. We usually exist on pre-made salads when we travel. Not here - have only found one salad so far and it wouldn’t have fed a baby rabbit. The favourite vegetable here is kumara - sweet potatoes. Can’t believe I’m craving green vegetables and going to the gym……

We headed home as we felt it prudent to get out of the sun even though we had slathered on sun screen today - twice.Read more