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Russell, known as Kororareka in the early 19th century, 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.
When European and American ships began visiting New Zealand in the early 1800s, the indigenous Māori quickly recognised there were great advantages in trading with these strangers, whom they called tauiwi.[4] The Bay of Islands offered a safe anchorage and had a large Māori population. To attract ships, Māori began to supply food and timber. What the Māori population wanted was respect, plus firearms, alcohol, and other goods of European manufacture.
Kororareka developed as a result of this trade but soon earned a very bad reputation as a community without laws and full of prostitution. It became known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific",[5] despite the translation of its name being "How sweet is the penguin" (kororā meaning blue penguin and reka meaning sweet).[6] European law had no influence and Māori law was seldom enforced within the town's area. Fighting on the beach at Kororareka in March 1830, between northern and southern hapū within the Ngāpuhi iwi, became known as the Girls’ War.
On 30 January 1840 at the Christ Church, Governor Hobson read his Proclamations (which were the beginnings of the Treaty of Waitangi) in the presence of a number of settlers and the Maori chief Moka Te Kainga-mataa. A document confirming what had happened was signed at this time by around forty witnesses, including Moka, the only Maori signatory. The following week, the Treaty proceedings would then move across to the western side of the bay to Waitangi.[7]
By this time, Kororareka was an important mercantile centre and served as a vital resupply port for whaling and sealing operations. When the Colony of New Zealand was founded in that year, Hobson was reluctant to choose Kororareka as his capital, due to its bad reputation. Instead he purchased land at Okiato, situated five kilometres to the south, and renamed it Russell in honour of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord John Russell. Captain Hobson soon decided that the move to the Okiato site was a mistake, and Auckland was selected as the new capital not long after.[8]
Kororareka was part of the Port of Russell, and after Russell (Okiato) became virtually deserted, Kororareka gradually came to be known as Russell as well. In January 1844, Governor Robert FitzRoy officially designated Kororareka as part of the township of Russell. Today, the name Russell applies only to Kororareka, while the former capital is known either by its original name of Okiato or as Old Russell.
Whalers, Sailors, Traders
Back in town, a modest museum in York Street tells a mammoth story. By 1830 Kororareka was one of the largest whaling ports in the Southern Hemisphere, as a staggering 3,000 whaling ships came and went from the bay.
Around 400 or more sailors would ‘rest’ ashore and contribute to two other major industries – local ‘ladies’ and liquor. Kororareka had more whorehouses than storehouses, more madams than missionaries, more grog than groceries.
A museum shed on the foreshore has one of only six oar-powered whaleboats left in the country. The harpoonist anchored his knee in a rounded gap near the bow called the ‘clumsy cleat’ before aiming for the kill.
Outside there are cast-iron whale pots, a couple of old anchors and a mechanical pulley used for dragging whales on to the beach.
Pistols at Dawn
New Zealand’s first duel was contested in Russell in 1837 between merchant Joel Polack and innkeeper Ben Turner. Turner was wounded. They were at it again five years later when Polack was shot in the elbow and Turner received a bullet in the cheek.
Head a block back from the beach to Church Street, to find another superb source of colonial data at Christ Church.
Christ Church
The quaint Anglican church is the oldest building in New Zealand still used for the original purpose. The first service was on 3rd January 1836.
Hone Heke was busy again in 1845 when he and Te Ruki Kawiti attacked Kororareka. HMS Hazard evacuated the British, but the subsequent fire destroyed Joel Polack’s house and nearly the entire town. Six men from Hazard died and are buried in the graveyard.
During the battle, the church was hit by musket shot and the holes on the western side are still visible today.
The graveyard hosts the country’s first surgeon, the second white (Pakeha) girl born in New Zealand, the first Maori woman to marry a Pakeha man, and Henry Tapua Athleston Stevenson whose great-great-grand-daughter is married to Sir Billy Connolly.
A prominent headstone acknowledges influential Maori chief, Tamati Waka Nene, one of the first Maoris to convert to Christianity and one of the first to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty Grounds are visible across the bay and worth a visit.
The oldest existing grave is that of so-called reprobate William Skinner. and an unmarked grave belongs to John Poyner – an escaped convict turned grog-seller.
A Christ Church Cemetery Trail booklet that chronicles many more of these sepulcher stories, and a cemetery map, can be purchased at the Russell Museum.