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Russell

Entry 432, on 2006-11-25 at 22:49:35 (Rating 3, Travel)

This morning we visited and explored Russell. Russell is a small town, across the bay from Paihia, which is another small town we are currently staying at. Russell was an early settlement, and New Zealand's first capital. Today it is a quiet little tourist and historic town. The quickest way to get there is take a ferry. Russell can be reached by road, but its a fairly long journey around the sea shore and on some gravel roads. Travelling by boat is almost the norm here, anyway.

We did all the usual touristy things: looked at the historic buildings, walked up the hill to the flag pole that Maori chief Hone Heke chopped down 4 times about 150 years ago, and enjoyed a cold drink and snack while sitting in the bright sunshine.

After lunch we travelled back across to Paihia and drove the short distance to Waitangi. This was where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed which ended the war between the British settlers and the indigenous Maori tribes when New Zealand was settled. Some people refer to it as New Zealand's founding document which made the two groups of people here into one, but in my opinion this is a dubious claim.

The grounds at Waitangi are actually quite interesting. First we watched a brief video on the history of the area. It was a bit politically correct for my liking, but not as biased as I thought it might be, and fairly informative. These productions tend to have a bias towards the native people. When the Maoris murdered (and ate) the settlers it was for honour and revenge (utu) but if the British did the same it was implied it was because they were obsessed with power or naturally violent. Anyway, as I said, it wasn't as biased as I had feared, so I didn't walk out in protest!

We wandered around the grounds looking at James Busby's house, the Maori meeting house (there's a photo of some carving from it included with this entry), and the Maori war canoe (waka) that are displayed there. Then it was back to Paihia for dinner at a local restaurant.

Comment 1 (812) by Bonny on 2007-08-23 at 21:35:01:

Sound like a great visit and I'm glad you didn't find the political correctness too hard to take!

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