The last two days we have been staying around Paihia. Our main activity has been sailing, or at least an effort to do so, as the wind (or maybe Tawhirimatea the Maori god of winds) was not with us today. Nevertheless, it was an amazing day with beautiful weather and sunshine and we did enjoy a bit of snorkelling and a bit of sailing to Moturua (Motu = island and Rua = second; it is the second island in the Bay).

This area is considered to be the birthplace of New Zealand (not Aotearoa). It is the place where on the 6th February 1840, the first 43 Maori chiefs, after much discussions, signed the Treaty of Waitangi with the British Crown. Eventually more than 500 Maori chiefs would sign it and it plays an important role in the history of the country. 

In Paihia is also the first church ever built in New Zealand. On the site is today Saint Paul's Church, a beautiful stone building from 1925. 

Just opposite Paihia, on the other side of the Bay, is a town called Russell or Kororareka in Maori (sweet penguin). It is the town where the first European settlement was established in the early 19th century and the first capital of the country, before it was moved to Auckland in 1841. 

An interesting story that we heard about this particular area concerns Hone Heke. He was a chief of the local Maori and just five years after he had been the first to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, he was totally disappointed from the way things were going with the British authorities. He was planning to chop down Kororareka's flagstaff, a symbol of the British authority, for the fourth time (funny right? not the first time). Governor FitzRoy was determined not to allow such a thing to happen and garrisoned the town with soldiers. On 11 March 1845, Ngapuhi (the local Maori) staged a brilliant diversionary siege of the town: one chief attacked from the south and another one from the east. While the troops rushed off to protect the town, Hone Heke felled the Union Jack on the Flagstaff Hill, then called Maiki. It was the fourth and last time... The British were forced to evacuate to ships lying in achor. The captain of a ship was wounded severely in the battle and his replacement ordered the ships' cannons to be fired on the town, razing most of the buildings. It was the start of the first of the New Zealand wars.