Rangihoua Bay is a bay at the southern end of the

Purerua Peninsula Purerua Peninsula is a peninsula on the northwest side of the Bay of Islands in Northland, New Zealand. Te Puna Inlet lies to the south of the peninsula. Communities on the peninsula are Purerua, Te Tii and Taronui Bay. Rangihoua Bay is at the ...

, on the north-west shore of the

Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for ...

in Northland,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

.Wises New Zealand Guide, 7th Edition, 1979. p.367. It is 10 km north across the Bay of Islands from Russell and 12 km north from

Paihia Paihia is a town in the Bay of Islands in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is 60 kilometres north of Whangārei, located close to the historic towns of Russell, New Zealand, Russell and Kerikeri. Missionary Henry Wi ...

. By road it is 32 km from

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is a town in the Bay of Islands, in the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It lies at the head of Kerikeri Inlet, a northwestern arm of the Bay of Islands, where fresh water of the Kerikeri River enters the Paci ...

History

In the early 19th century, when European ships first began visiting the area, the

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (also known as Ngāpuhi-Nui-Tonu or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland regions of New Zealand centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2023 New Zealand census, the estimate ...

chief

Te Pahi Te Pahi (''Tippahee'' in traditional orthography; died 1810) was a Māori tribal leader and traveller from New Zealand. He was from the Ngāpuhi iwi and lived in the Rangihoua Bay area of the Bay of Islands. In 1805, Te Pahi decided to seek out ...

had a

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori people, Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive :wikt:terrace, terraces – and also to fo ...

at Rangihoua. After his death in 1810 he was succeeded as chief by Ruatara. It was the friendship of Te Pahi and Ruatara with

Samuel Marsden Samuel Marsden (25 June 1765 – 12 May 1838) was an English-born priest of the Church of England in Australia and a prominent member of the Church Missionary Society. He played a leading role in bringing Christianity to New Zealand. Marsden w ...

that led Marsden to decide that Rangihoua would be the site of the first Christian mission in New Zealand. Prior to the establishment of the mission Ruatara had been the first to grow wheat in New Zealand, at Rangihoua in 1812. The missionaries, John King, Thomas Kendall, and William Hall, together with free settler Thomas Hansen, arrived in Rangihoua Bay on board the brig ''Active'' on 22 December 1814. The first Christian sermon on New Zealand land was preached by Marsden at Oihi Bay (a small cove in the north-east of Rangihoua Bay) on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

, 1814. On 24 February 1815 Marsden purchased land at Rangihoua for the first New Zealand mission. The death of Ruatara on 15 March 1815 and the loss of his protection for the mission may have contributed to a lack of growth of European settlement in the area and its subsequent displacement, in the 1820s, by the mission at Kerikeri as the senior mission in New Zealand. By the 1830s the houses of the mission at Oihi had deteriorated considerably and the mission was moved to Te Puna, further to the west in Rangihoua Bay.Wises New Zealand Guide, 7th Edition, 1979. p.308. The mission finally closed in the 1850s. On 21 December 2014 the Rangihoua Heritage Park was opened to commemorate the bicentennial of the establishment of the mission.Rangihoua Herutage Park
/ref> Rangihoua bay and Oihi

References

External links

New Zealand History: Rangihoua missionary settlement
{{coord, 35, 10, 30, S, 174, 05, 30, E, type:waterbody_region:NZ-NTL_scale:100000, display=title Far North District History of the Northland Region Bay of Islands Bays of the Northland Region Heritage New Zealand historic areas