Okiato

Okiato or Old Russell is a small holiday spot in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, seven km south of present-day Russell. It was New Zealand's first national capital, for a short time from 1840 to 1841, before the seat of government was moved to Auckland. The car ferry across the Bay of Islands, the main tourist access to Russell, runs between Okiato and Opua. Pomare, the local Māori chief in the 1830s, sold land at Okiato to a British merchant and ship owner, Captain James Reddy Clendon, who settled there in 1832 and set up a trading station with partner Samuel Stephenson. Clendon became the first United States Consul for New Zealand in 1838 or 1839. When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson...