![]() ![]() Meanwhile, kids in wet togs trudging up the track have swum in the same ocean where a brig named Active safely offloaded missionaries, crew and cargo more than two centuries ago.īy the time I cross the river onto the beach, final stragglers are taking selfies with the Marsden Cross, a monument marking the country’s first Christian service, before heading back up the hill. Today, it doubles as a thoughtfully designed and well-signposted heritage track that starts at a shelter called Rore Kāhu at the top of the hill and finishes on the foreshore of Rangihoua Bay. Planned and directed from Australia by the Reverend Samuel Marsden, the mission operated under the protection of local Māori from 1814 until it was abandoned in 1832. Rangihoua Heritage Park is a 44-hectare park on the Purerua Peninsula about 40 minutes’ drive from Kerikeri or three-and-a-half hours’ drive from Auckland.įormally recognised by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga as a heritage area in 2007, the park officially opened in 2014 to commemorate 200 hundred years since the founding of Hohi Mission Station, New Zealand’s first European settlement. And because they settled in the Hohi valley where it was hard to grow crops, the community gardens that surrounded the pā, gave the missionaries food to stay alive.” That pā gave Marsden’s missionaries much-needed protection. “The 1800s were exciting, but dangerous times. “‘Without Rangihoua pā,’ I told them, “‘New Zealand’s first European settler community would’ve washed up on some other shore’,” says Hugh. Meeting the group at Rangihoua Heritage Park nearby, Hugh pointed to the terraced pā in the distance, explaining how its strategic position helped Te Pahi, Ruatara and their tūpuna flourish in the Bay of Islands over centuries. Hugh traces his links to Ruatara’s wife, Rahu, and to Te Pahi through a tūpuna’s (ancestor’s) relationship with Te Pahi’s mother. Just a few days ago, he met two busloads of Kerikeri students and teachers and gave a history lesson on his whanaunga (relatives). It’s a local history Hugh is often asked to recall.
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