Paihia

Paihia is the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands in the far north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located close to the historic towns of Russell, and Kerikeri, 60 kilometres north of Whangarei. The origin of the name Paihia is obscure. One, possibily apocryphal, attribution is to Reverend Henry Williams. When Williams first arrived in the Bay of Islands he knew only a little of the Māori vocabulary, one of the words he did know being ‘pai’ meaning 'good'. When they came to the place now known as Paihia, he told his Māori guide ‘Pai here’. Henry Williams named the missionary station Marsden's Vale; eventually the name Paihia became the accepted name of the settlement. Nearby is the historic settlement of Waitangi to the...