Waitangi and the Bay of Islands, where modern New Zealand was signed into being

The Bay of Islands, on the east coast of the far north of New Zealand, is a wide, sheltered bay scattered with green islands, with hidden coves, beaches and inlets. Captain Cook anchored here in 1769 and gave it its name. Its warm climate and sheltered waters had long made it one of the most populous areas of Māori settlement, and in the early nineteenth century it became the first place in New Zealand where Europeans settled in numbers: whalers, traders, missionaries and adventurers. It was here, in 1840, that the treaty that founded modern New Zealand was signed.

The treaty

By the 1830s, the growing number of European settlers, the lawlessness of the whaling port of Kororāreka and the prospect of uncontrolled land sales and French interest led the British government to act. In early 1840, William Hobson arrived as consul with instructions to secure British sovereignty with the consent of the Māori chiefs. On 6 February 1840, at Waitangi, on the shore of the bay, he and more than forty Māori chiefs signed the treaty. In the following months, copies were taken round the country, and more than five hundred chiefs eventually signed.

The treaty was written in English and translated into Māori, and the two versions differ in crucial ways. In the English text, the chiefs ceded sovereignty to the Crown. In the Māori text, they granted kawanatanga, a word usually translated as governance, while being guaranteed tino rangatiratanga, full chieftainship over their lands, villages and treasures. In 2014 the Waitangi Tribunal, which hears treaty claims, found that the chiefs who signed in the north had not agreed to give up their sovereignty. In the decades that followed, the Crown and settlers took much of the Māori land, often in breach of the treaty's promises, and through wars, confiscations and dubious sales.

The treaty remains at the centre of New Zealand's national life. Since 1975 a tribunal has investigated claims of breaches, leading to settlements and apologies. The day it was signed, 6 February, is the national day, Waitangi Day, marked by ceremonies at the Treaty Grounds and, often, by protest and debate.

The Treaty Grounds

The Waitangi Treaty Grounds, on a headland above the bay, are a place of national importance. The Treaty House, a modest colonial house built in the 1830s for the British Resident, James Busby, stands on the lawn where the treaty was signed. Beside it is a carved Māori meeting house, Te Whare Rūnanga, built in 1940 for the treaty's centenary, its carvings representing tribes from across the country. Down on the shore lies one of the largest ceremonial war canoes in the world, carved from great kauri trees and still paddled on Waitangi Day. Two museums tell the story of the treaty and of the people involved.

Beside the Treaty House, in a shelter on the shore, lies Ngātokimatawhaorua, a great carved ceremonial war canoe, one of the largest in the world, built for the centenary of the treaty in 1940. The anniversary of the signing, 6 February, is New Zealand's national day, and Waitangi is the focus of the national commemorations.

A short drive inland, at Kerikeri, two buildings from the early mission settlement survive by the river: Kemp House, built in the early 1820s and the oldest surviving building in the country, and the Stone Store, from the 1830s, its oldest stone building.

Around the bay

Across the water from Paihia, the little town of Russell was once Kororāreka, the rowdy whaling port that earned a reputation as the "hellhole of the Pacific". It is now a quiet, pretty village of wooden houses, with New Zealand's oldest surviving church. At Kerikeri, to the north, the Stone Store, built by missionaries in the 1830s, is the oldest stone building in the country. Its neighbour, the Mission House, is the oldest surviving building of any kind.

On the water, boat trips explore the islands and head out to Cape Brett and the Hole in the Rock, a natural arch through a rocky island. Dolphins are often seen in the bay.

Travelsphere's Discover New Zealand, twenty-one nights, includes Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, with Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington in the North Island and a long route through the South Island.

Travelsphere's Discover New Zealand with Cook Islands Add-on, twenty-six nights, includes Paihia and the same mix of both islands, and adds time on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

The southern summer, from about November to March, is the best time to visit, though the far north is mild all year. If you can, be there on Waitangi Day, when the waka is launched and the grounds fill with people.