Position 35 01.722S  173 54.958E

Literally 15 mins up the road was the town of Kerikeri, which has some very historical buildings (by NZ standards).  Spent most of the day here looking around.   This is NZs oldest building Kemp House in the Kerikeri basin, part of the Bay of Islands.  You can only get into the building if you go on a tour.  We were the guides first tour group, poor lady couldn’t get the door open she was so nervous.  Paul opened it for her.  She was good though, knew her stuff.  Had to take our shoes off so as not to trash the floor.  Can you imagine being asked to do that in the UK?

Bit of history.  Missionaries were desperate to convert the Maoris and in 1814 a guy called Samuel Marsden anchored outside Kerikeri Inlet.  Marsden had met one of the chiefs of the area, Te Pahi, some years earlier and formed a friendship. Important because it gave him a intro and protection within the area.  Just opposite this mission house was a huge fortified pa governed by chief Hongi Hika who was a canny man.  He had sent a couple of his sons back to England some 20 odd years before the missionaries arrived and he was keen to get his hands on new technologies, farming stuff and, of course, guns.  He allowed Marsden to build his mission house at this spot.  We did a tour of the house and had a long chat with the guide.  Because the missionaries were desperate to have contact with the ‘locals’ they sold them muskets.  Later they tried to stop the flow but too late.  Anyway, literally across the river from them, war canoes would gather before they went on raids.  When they returned they brought with them slaves and partook in cannibalism.  This mission house went up some years after Hongi Hika let them land here.  It had a big bolt on the door, so they must have felt a bit safer then.  Hongi Hika went to England, was feted by King George and given loads of gifts.  Canny guy sold them in Australia on the way back home and bought a load of muskets.  Anyway the mission house became known as Kemp House,  So called because missionary called Kemp, who was originally a missionary and was then disgraced when they found out he had been selling guns to Maoris, eventually bought the house and then (I think) his descendants lived in it!  Poor Kemp is a bit maligned as he did at first try not to sell guns, then his wife had an affair with some labourer, then they ran out of food.  He finally had to sell guns in exchange for food.

A lot of houses in NZ are made from wood, flexes better than brick – I think I’ve already said that, but hey.

A few shots of the inside, Paul has loads more ….

The other really old building here is the Stone Store.  This was originally built to store wheat etc.  but that wouldn’t grow in this climate so bad luck there.  Its NZ oldest stone building.  After the mission station closed in 1848 the store was bought by ex-missionary James Kemp.  The upstairs had been converted into a museum which you could only enter if you had paid for the tour.  It was great though, a bit of writing, maps, journals from missionaries and sea captains, a good tape recording of things that happened in the area.  Well worth the visit and the money $10 each!  Could have spent hours just reading.

View of both buildings from across the river.