Pahia and the Bay of Islands

New Zealand was first discovered about 1000 years ago by the great Polynesian navigator Kupe who sailed here from his homeland Hawaiki. He named the islands Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud. Kupe returned to Hawaiki and left instruction on how to get here.

About 400 years later Maori arrived back in Aotearoa with seven great canoes and began to populate the North Island.The Dutchman Abel Tasman landed in 1642, charted part of the coastline and named it Staten land, believing it was part of the Australian continent. When his mistake was discovered the country was renamed Nieuw Zeeland.

In 1769 James Cook came to New Zealand, extensively charted both North and South Island and gave the Bay of Islands its present name.

Maori occupied the Bay of Islands from as early as the 10th century. The first tribes stayed for only relatively short periods. Garden sites documented by archaeologists at Urimatao, on Moturua Island, are evidence of their occupation.

The Te Awa people from Dargaville area followed these earlier transient settlers and they too stayed for only a short time before moving south. Their two known pa (fortified villages) at Rawhiti and Manawaora, are modeled exactly on their original Dargaville sites.

The Ngare Raumati people arrived in the later 15th century from the Bay of Plenty and intermarried with other hapu (sub-tribes) in the area. They occupied the Bay of Islands for three hundred years.

During the 17th century, the Nga Manu people and descendants of Waipihangarangi were given Kororareka Peninsula from Te Wahapu to Tapeka as utu (payment for the killing of one of their chiefs). The chief at this time was Tupare, whose pa, Te Ke Emua, was on the hill behind the present-day landmark of Pompallier. He was forced to relinquish both his lands and his daughter following the killing of the Nga Manu chief, Waipahihi.

Early in the 19th century, the Ngapuhi chiefs from the Kerikeri and Waimate areas defeated Ngare Raumati and when the Nga Manu (now known as the Ngati Manu) left and established themselves further inland. The Ngapuhi people remained and settled in the Kororareka area.

Kororareka was one of many small settlements in the Bay of Islands. It was to change and develop dramatically as a result of contact with European arrivals.

With its three sandy beaches sheltered by rocky islets, Paihia has been a popular holiday destination for over a hundred years.

Missionaries were the first white people to settle Paihia in 1823. Led by Rev. Henry Williams they built a house, store and the first church in New Zealand, which was constructed in the traditional Maori way using raupo. Williams gained the respect and trust of the local Maori people, trying to understand their ways and to eliminate friction between Maori and Pakeha. Henry Williams' brother William joined the mission. He compiled a Maori dictionary and translated the New Zealand Testament into Maori.

In commemoration of this early history, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust set up a number of plaques along Paihia's waterfront.