Sweet penguin and the 'Hell Hole of the Pacific'

The Bay of Islands is one of those places found throughout the Antipodes with a conveniently descriptive name. You have some idea of what to expect before you round the final bend to be met by a glassy seascape punctured with numerous beautiful isles large and small.

We awoke in the coastal town of Paihia (sunrise pictured right) and trundled along the esplanade to the wharf where we boarded a ferry to the sleepy town across the bay with a rather curious history. After pushing our pram up along the main street and through winter morning sun we found our way to the local museum. This was full of lots of interesting stuff like the jaws of a seven metre shark, a one fifth scale model of Captain Cook’s Endeavour and an impressive array of instruments intended for inflicting harm on others but the story behind the naming of the town did lead me to break the stuffy silence with a cheeky giggle.

Legend has it that a chief, wounded in battle, asked for penguin and after drinking some of the broth, murmured, “Ka reka te korora”, meaning how sweet is the penguin? Now I’m sure that only those present at this post-battle recoup could tell us whether the chief was being rhetorical or not but his question must have begged an answer that went something like ‘pretty sweet’ because the town was named Kororareka meaning sweet penguin. Another name given to this town in the early 19th century was ‘Hell hole of the Pacific’, apparently due to the general sense of lawlessness and debauchery that ensued soon after the arrival of Euros with their deserting seamen, runaway convicts, grog sellers, settlers, pimps and prostitutes. Stranger still is the fact that this ‘Tortuga’ of the pacific became the nation’s capital in 1840 but was moved elsewhere less than a year later. A few years later someone must have named the place after a mate down the pub as the town has now gone by the name of Russell for the last 150 years (jetty pictured left).

Leaving the museum with a sense of historical accomplishment we wandered around New Zealand’s oldest church, went up to the lookout (this highlighting again our mutual lack of physical fitness as a married couple) and enjoyed the truly stunning panorama of aforementioned islands from a new vantage point. This picture obviously does said view little justice.


As we watched the Hell hole of the Pacific retreat behind the wake of the mid-afternoon ferry Liv and I agreed that this was the sort of town we would not be ashamed to call home and I was struck with the thought that when Kiwis say ‘sweet as…’ perhaps they are abbreviating the full ancient saying ‘sweet as that penguin at Russell’.