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 and Kerikeri. Missionary Henry Williams named the mission station Marsden's Vale. Paihia eventually became the accepted name of the settlement.

Nearby to the north is the historic settlement of Waitangi, and the residential and commercial area of Haruru Falls is to the west. The port and township of Opua, and the small settlement of Te Haumi, lie to the south.

The origin of the name "Paihia" is unclear. A popular attribution, most likely apocryphal, is that when Reverend Henry Williams first arrived in the Bay of Islands searching for a location for his mission station, he told his Māori guide, "Pai here," meaning "Good here," as his Māori vocabulary was limited.

CMS missionary Henry Williams and his wife Marianne settled in Paihia in 1823 and built the first church there the same year. His brother, William Williams and his wife Jane joined the Paihia mission in 1826. Bishop William Grant Broughton (the first and only Bishop of Australia) visited the Paihia mission in 1838 and performed several firsts in New Zealand including the first Confirmation and Ordination ceremonies.

The Herald was a 55-ton schooner that the missionaries built and launched off the beach at Paihia on 24 January 1826.

In December 1832 the first mention of cricket being played in New Zealand was recorded by Henry Williams. In 1835 a game of cricket was witnessed here by Charles Darwin, in December 1835 while the Beagle spent 10 days in the Bay of Islands.

In 1835 William Colenso set up the first printing press in New Zealand at Paihia.

In 1850 the mission closed and Paihia declined to a very small settlement by 1890.