48 - Sunday, August 11. 1991 ~ North Shore News

More than meets the eye in

RUSSELL — Tourism used to be such a simple affair.

People went to Hawaii for the sun,

shopping and Torquay for silly hotels.

New Zealand was known as a place for young people to go backpacking and seniors to potter in the byways.

Nowadays you can do just about anything in New Zealand, from skiing to golf to bungy- jumping, marvel at the scenery, sleep soundly after a day counting sheep, and you couldn’t meet more hospitable people.

And there’s more than meets the eye in some places, like Russell. a little village in the Bay of Islands 150 miles north of Auckland.

In the peak summer months of January and February the Kiwis pack the kids into their Morris Minors and Triumph Heralds and motor up to the hotels, boarding houses and campgrounds of littie towns like Russell.

Others come by yacht and ex- plore the 150 islands, the bays where Zane Grey used to fish for striped marlin, yellowfin tuna and blue sharks, and where Captain Cook dropped anchor in 1769.

Cook and his gentlemen natu- ralists were the first Europeans here. Cook named Cape Brett while Joseph Banks noted ‘‘the bay was a most surprising place ... full of harbors as smooth as mill- ponds.”

Settlers soon followed, in- cluding chandlers and grog shop operators who did a roaring trade with whalermen.

Russell became known as the helihole of the Pacific and in 1830 was the scene of a war that started over two Maori girls who each claimed to be the favorite of a whaling captain.

In 1835, Christ Church, the oldest church im New Zealand, was built. Ten years later rioting Maoris sacked the town and chopped down the fiagpole four times, but spared the church.

The Royal Navy’s HMS Hazard helped out with a show of force, but not before putting four can- nonbalis through the church.

Today Russell is a delight to visit. The easiest way is to take Fuller’s cream boat (so called because this was a milk run, so to speak, picking up cream from farmers around the bays) from Paihia to Russell.

There is a fine Captain Cook museum, grand views from Flagstaff Hill (complete with pole

David Wishart

TRAVEL TIPS

No. 5), and a fascinating collec- tion of tombstones in the church- yard,

I bougitt a tin of beer at the Duke of Marlborough, which boasts New Zealand’s oldest li- quor licence, and fish and chips at a shop around the corner, and found a seaview bench.

Here was a spot to ponder the times gone by, such as the 1880s to 1930s, when this outpost was served from Auckland by the Clansmen, a Clyde-built steam- ship.

As the museum historian wrote: “Early evening Tuesday morning the old ship arrived, discharging her cargo and then pulled out for her journey north ... on Thursday or Friday she was back again ready to load fish, kauri gum and, in season, oysters. Wild indeed was the storm that succeeded in upsetting her schedule.

“It was said that only the Clansman had the power of set- ting Russell astir! Her departure was a social fixture.’’

Near Paihia, a busy tourist cen- tre, but not unbearably so, is Waitangi, scene of the 1840 treaty signing that created the New Zealand nation.

There’s quite a bit to see here including a Maori museum and the largest war canoe in the world. Close by is the government-ritn Waitangi Hotel, and not far away a golf course where the green fees are remarkably, and _ typically, cheap.

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ussell, NZ

Photo submitted

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