Oihi Bay (Rangihoua Bay), 1964 (15419077993)

Rangihoua Bay is a bay at the southern end of the Purerua Peninsula, 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 its ...

in Northland,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

.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 the main tourist 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 and Kerikeri. Missionary Henry William ...

. By road it is 32 km from

Kerikeri Kerikeri () is the largest town in Northland, New Zealand. It is a tourist destination north of Auckland and north of the northern region's largest city, Whangarei. It is sometimes called the Cradle of the Nation, as it was the site of th ...

History

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

Ngāpuhi Ngāpuhi (or Ngā Puhi) is a Māori iwi associated with the Northland region of New Zealand and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands, and Whangārei. According to the 2018 New Zealand census, the estimated population of Ngāpuhi is 165, ...

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 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, believed to have introduced Christianity to New Zealand. Marsden was a prom ...

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 feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

, 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
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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 NZHPT register in the Northland Region Bay of Islands Bays of the Northland Region