Russell, The Hell Hole of The Pacific - Bay of Islands, - New Zealand

The tiny town of Russell with the huge moniker of ‘The Hell Hole of The Pacific’ has been on Rosie and The Operators bucket list for ages! Our family day trip there today did not disappoint. Modern day Russell has left behind its salubrious past and just oozes history, charm and personality. A bonus, it is only a 10 min ferry ride across the bay from where we are staying in Paihia!

All Aboard! Let Rosie and The Operator show you around. We walked from our accommodation down the hill to the Paihia Wharf to catch the passenger ferry across the bay . The wharf and buildings are painted crisp white, perfectly matching the blue summer sky overhead and the sparkling turquoise sea that stretched out for as far as the eye could see. It was early morning but the Bay was busy with kayaks, sailboats, fishermen and even swimmers that seemed to be bobbing from island to island.

The ferry was small and had the look of a jolly bathtub toy but the trip was smooth and the views across and around the bays were beautiful. The giant colourful para-sails of the thrill seekers soared above our heads, swooping sea gulls screeched and 10 minutes later we were pulling into Russell wharf, directly across the Bay.

Russell has a permanent population of 700 and is built on the waters edge. The town is only a couple of streets wide with beautiful wooden Edwardian frontages lining the waterfront and 60s style housing stretching up the green bush clad hill. The water just laps the bay and is so picturesque and quiet it is hard to imagine that this town, the very first European settlement in New Zealand, was once dubbed The Hell Hole of the Pacific.

Reminders of the past though are everywhere….

In the early 1800s Russell was overrun with whalers, sailors and escaped convicts who flocked here en mass for its prostitution and lawless reputation. The Missionaries had mainly settled on the other side of the bay and lived a quiet pious existence, hence, each side was referred to as Heaven and Hell. Today, it’s a little more laid back and genteel, catering for the thousands of people who flock here daily during summer, to wander, eat, shop and revel in the history.

Leaving the wharf, a bay front sign proclaims that it is 250 steps to Pompallier House, this is where we were headed and The Nieces counted, out loud, in unison every giant step they took, taking into decided consideration of course that the count would have been ‘adult’ steps. There were a few distractions on the way with dogs to pat and interesting stones to collect, but under Rosie’s watchful eye their final count of 286 seemed quite accurate.

Pompallier House sits within a grand garden and has the title of being the first industrial building built in New Zealand in 1844. It was a printing workshop set up by French Bishop Pompallier and run by his missionaries.

From this workshop they translated into Te Reo (The Maori Language), printed and bound over 40,000 mainly religious texts that they distributed for free to the Maori using equipment transported here from France and the UK. They even translated the bible into Maori and printed it….oh, mused Rosie, to own a copy today.

Not a shabby office view either! The tour of the printing workshop was so interesting and humorous…so many sayings we use today come from the printing industry.

Eg – the instruments behind the printing plate (below) are called ‘dabbers’…ink was put on the skins and ‘dabbed’ onto the plates ready for printing…the application had to be perfect and consistent…hence the expression today of ‘being a dab hand’.

Out of Sorts – the meaning today, is feeling unwell or grumpy – when a printer ran out of individual letters (sorts) whilst setting his type – he was ‘out of sorts’.

Mind your ps and qs – meaning being on your best behavior or paying attention to detail – a printer had to set the individual letters backwards so you had to mind your ps and qs to ensure they were around the right way when printed.

Make a good impression – well that is pretty self explanatory – a printer always wants to make a good impression…with every print. That is exactly what The Niece wanted to do! She volunteered during the tour for a lesson on how the original printing press worked. She was an awesome assistant and voila! This was her print which she was so proud of!

The Mission also had its own leather tannery and book binding rooms. The building itself was fabulous, built along the lines of a French farm house with super thick walls and huge French fireplaces, beautiful wooden beams and a perfect insulated temperature for indoor work if it was to hot or to cold.

Coffee is calling! Rosie and The Operator, BJ and Gee had a wonderful caffeine fix and french pastry on the deck of the gift shop villa looking out over the clipped hedge to the beautiful blue sea.

Wandering back along the waterfront in the sunshine it is so quiet here. The cicadas are chirping and the birds sing in the huge, gnarly, twisted pohutukawa trees that line the seashore and stretch out towards the water. It was magical.

Small, colourful rowboats sit bottom up under the trees on the pebbly beach waiting for their owners. Tables and chairs from cafes and restaurants sit in the shade amongst the bay side trees gnarly roots and make for the best tables to while away the time. The colourful pebbles that make up the small beach instead of sand shine wetly as the water gently laps them. A man sits playing a cheerful tune on a squeezebox as he gazes out to sea and a bearded man that looks remarkably like Santa Claus waves as he rows his boat across the bay. Russell feels like a place where no one looks at the time and the only indication that it is lunchtime is everyone’s grumbling stomach. So saying that, Rosie’s stomach is grumbling, on wards we stroll to The Duke of Marlborough Tavern where we have a lunch reservation.

The Duke of Marlborough is New Zealand’s most iconic pub and started life in 1827 as a small grog shop. It stands proudly on the waterfront and is a commanding building, even though it has burnt down twice since being built. This beautiful building you see today is the third incarnation and has been standing since 1875. The back story of the first ex convict owner Johnny Johnston is quite epic…click on his name to have a chuckle. It paints a great picture of the early days of the Tavern and of Russell.

The pub has pretty much always been called The Duke of Marlborough (after Johnny’s Grog Shop) and it still holds the original, very first liquor license issued in New Zealand which is proudly displayed with its official #1 accreditation behind the bar. We all had a scrumptious lunch here and wow, what a view!

This giant Moreton Bay fig tree is next door to The Duke and is over 100 years old! The rich, ripe figs were dripping from the branches and splattering the pavement with pips and purple.

After lunch, The Operator, CRO and Whipper head out for a hike up Flagstaff Hill. Being the highest point in Russell the English put a flagpole up on arrival and proudly flew the crowns colours. This is the exact spot where Hone Heke, a local Maori chief, infamously cut down the British flagpole 4 times over disputes with the Crown. This look out point has a stunning 360 degree view over Russell and the whole of the Bay of Islands. Rows of vines dot the interior landscape from the small boutique wineries that are in this area and the views are simply breathtaking.

The Girls, Gee and RAM opted for a more leisurely afternoon stroll a couple of doors down where we sat in the shade and had an invigorating flat white fix whilst looking out over the Bay.

You cannot forget of course the only other street in Russell, one back from the waterfront. An antique barn come garage? Of course Rosie is going for a nosey around and have a squizz at all the treasures. Dont touch anything BJ….everything here is super expensive.

Next door is Christ Church, New Zealand’s oldest surviving church built in 1835. Services in this modest wooden church back in the day were conducted in both English and Maori….and the graveyard…the stories it tells of our early settlers is amazing.

Samuel Hayward Ford was New Zealand’s first surgeon and doctor. He and his wife Martha had 10 children, of which sadly, only 1 survived The graveyard behind the church holds his entire family at rest and the stones are so sad, four of his kids passed at the same time from a Scarlet Fever outbreak in 1838, his children are some of the earliest buried here.

Not far from the church is the very interesting Russell Museum where there is a 1/5 replica of Captain Cooks ship the Endeavour. in 1769 Cook landed on the shores of New Zealand and was the first to chart the entire coastline, he was the one who named this area The Bay of Islands.

The museum is small and full of interesting information on the local Maori, settlers and what life was like when they first arrived. It was well worth the visit and the entrance fee keeps this place running. The historical items and interesting ways they are exhibited make this museum a real asset to the community.

Russell did not disappoint Rosie and The Operator, it is there to be enjoyed like you would a fine slow cooked meal. Revel and linger over each delicious historical course, savor the moment, forget the time and relish the scenery from any seat in the house as they all have a fantastic view. For desert, just repeat or plan to come back another time…we will.