Samuel Marsden Memorial Church

When we first came up to the far north on holiday in April 2018 we drove through Matauri Bay and just before the road to the beach and campground there is this small church with a Maori urupa attached to it.

It's named after Samuel Marsden, the first missionary to New Zealand who came here in 1814 to minister to the Maori people. Accompanying Marsden were missionaries Thomas Kendall, William Hall and John King and their families; John Liddiard Nicholas (author of “Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand”) and Ruatara, Hongi Hika, Korokoro, Te Nganga, Tui and Maui.

The great Ngapuhi war chief, Hongi Hika welcomed Marsden and his colleagues with haka (war dances), inviting them to a feast. They spent the night with Hongi Hika and his people at Putataua Bay before continuing to Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands to establish the first mission station.

The small Anglican church beside the road, some 400 metres before the beach, is the Samuel Marsden Memorial Church, named in honour of the missionary's arrival on these shores. The lettering above the gate to the churchyard and urupa (cemetery) reads “Te Tou O Taki”.

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Walker's Passage

Set back along the waterfront of Russell is this commemorative patch of land which pays homage to a historical local.  Tamati Waka Nene was born sometime during the 1780s and died in 1871. He was the chief of the Ngati Hao people in the Hokianga region and important war leader. 

He fought in the musket wars of the 1820s, and after the death of Hongi Hika in 1828 he took on the responsibility of protecting the the Wesleyan missionaries in the Hokianga.

During the 1830s he joined the Wesleyan faith but he wasn't baptized until 1839 and took on the name of Thomas Walker after an English merchant who was the patron of the Anglican Church Missionary Society. This area that is marked with carvings shows where his house once stood.

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Learning at Rewa's Village

One of our adventures recently have included visiting an attraction that is local to us called Rewa's Village. Now this place overlooks the Kerikeri Stone Store and Mission House and was designed to teach people about the Maori fishing village that used to be there before and when the first settlers arrived in NZ. Well known chiefs like Tareha of Ngati Rehia, Rewa of Ngai Tawake and Hongi Hika of Ngati Tautahi stayed here in the 1820s.

This is a storage area that the Maori use to store their food in such as vegetables, ferns, roots etc.

A Maori whare is what we call a house or sleeping area or a meeting house. You can see the small door and window at the front. There is a floor area inside that is basically the earth and they would've laid grass or mats down to sit and sleep on.

At the bottom of the hill is this wetland area. The tide was out so we were able to see the various plants that grew there such as Mangroves which are an important ecological food source for many fish and crustaceans such as Snapper, Crabs and Shrimps etc.

Along the many pathways were many medicinal plants that the Maori would've used to treat illnesses and eat for food such as Flax (Harakeke) was prepared and used as clothing or baskets, Kawakawa was used to treat cuts, wounds, bruises or for toothache, the bark of the Rata tree was soaked in water and then applied as a lotion. More information on the uses of these plants here.

This hut under the earth was another storage area - this one particular for Kumara or what you might call Sweet Potato which was a very important food staple. In fact it's still popular today, we like the orange variety as it is sweeter than the gold or purple.

Near the edge of the water was this fishing waka or canoe that would've fitted at least 2-3 people in. It's alot smaller than a traditional war canoe. To the Maori, Tangaroa is the God of the sea and of fish. It was important for them to be favoured by this God and because fishing was regarded as being Tapu (a sacred activity) they had rules about when to fish and how to make nets out of Flax.

This hut was for a Tohunga's enclosure. A Tohunga was sort of like a doctor who practiced alternative natural medicine and they were greatly respected.

More medicinal plants around this path including plaques explaining who the first botanists to our country were such as Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander who came off Captain Cook's boat.

I'm particularly interested in natural medicine and I have grown various herbs for use in cooking and drinking so this appealed to me.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday and My Corner of the World.

Historical Kororipo Pa

Near Kerikeri's Stone Store is this historic gem - the Kororipo pa site was once occupied by some of the Hongi Hika and Rewa's people (Ngapuhi) in the 1820s. This was once a stockaded fortress and used as a port to collect shellfish, seafood and a place to store  their canoes.

This area was previously occupied by another tribe called Ngati Miru until they were attacked by the Ngapuhi.

Kororipo - meaning Waha-o-teriri (mouth of war) is now under the protection of NZ's Department of Conservation and it is a popular tourist spot.

Hongi Hika and his people left Kerikeri for Whangaroa at the end of 1826 and after being hurt in battle in 1827 died in 1828. In 1830 Rewa and his people left Kerikeri to live at Russell then Kororipo became deserted. Rewa sold 7 acres to James Kemp in 1831 to become part of his farm and mission station and in 1838 the remaining 6 acres were also sold to James Kemp by Hongi's sons Hongi and and Puru. This 6 acres was gifted to the nation by E.S. Little in the 1950s.