Russell Township Walks

As well as the historic streets and buildings of Russell's historic township there are several walking tracks right in town making it easy to get around on foot as befits a watering hole for sailors, whalers and Maori with only their feet for transport in the early 1800's.

After you've explored the waterfront, York and Cass streets contain the rest of Russell's commercial and public facilities.

The next street back from the beach is Church Street containing New Zealand's oldest church as well as old cottages, the Masonic lodge, bowling club and the local school. A little higher and further back is Baker Street with the Fire Station and Catholic Chapel and many substantial old homes. It connects southward with Matauwhi Road leading to Matauwhi Bay.

The land climbs steeply above the town behind Baker Street and at the top a sequence of short streets (Brind, Gould, Oneroa) follow the ridgeline giving excellent views. A variety of loop walks can be enjoyed by climbing or descending the Zigzag, Hazard Street and Lemon Tree tracks as well as Robertson Street and Pomare Road/Florance Avenue or even the Long Beach Walkway to Ocean View Road.

Location, Grade and Duration

Flat: The Strand, Matauwhi Road, Cass, York, Church, Baker, lower Wellington and Chapel streets. Also Matauwhi Road and lower Florance Avenue (to Pomare Road). Flowerday, Walker and Brodie passages.

Moderate: Pomare, Oneroa, Brind, Long Beach, Russell Heights roads and Gould Street.

Steep: Hazard, Robertson, upper Chapel, Prospect and upper Wellington streets. Queens View and Flagstaff roads. Zigzag, Hazard Street, Oneroa "paper road" and Lemon Tree tracks.

Restrictions

The only public toilets are on York Street in front of the Town Hall.

Dogs should generally be leashed in the town.

There is a small shop in Matauwhi Bay but otherwise all the shops are in York Street or The Strand (waterfront).

Interests

Christ Church (oldest church in NZ), Russell Museum (pictured), art and craft galleries, groceries, garage, hardware, real estate, hotel, tourist accommodation, tavern, restaurants, cafes and takeaway bars. Boating club and moorings in Matauwhi Bay.

Russell School, in Baker Street takes children until they graduate to secondary school and travel to Kawakawa or Kerikeri. Parts of the school date back to 1892, but formal education began much earlier with classes at Pompallier Mission Station. The palm trees from the front gate (in Church Street) commemorate Russell's soldiers who died in World War 1.

History

A lot of Russell's early history since 1809 is sketched in the beach walk guide as well as in the Te Maiki (Flagstaff) hill walk guide.

Russell's original Maori name, Kororareka, means 'sweet little penguin'. A dying chief reportedly asked for soup made from the little Blue Penguin. "Ka reka te korora", he said ('how sweet is the penguin'). Pronounce Kororareka "core-roar-rah-wreck-ah" with rolled r's, so the "roar" sounds like "door".

Before 1879 the Russell wharf handled coastal steamers and larger craft. Still today most visitors arrive by either the Opua vehicular or Paihia passenger ferries. What is now Cass Street in the centre of town is wide leading off the wharf and was originally planned as 'Sydney Square' by early settlers. The 'Russell 2000' group recently redesigned and paved it.

Russell (Marine) Radio, now located beneath the Swordfish Club, is a voluntary organisation and local institution serving local and offshore vessels since 1951, contributing to the safety and comfort of seagoing craft in the huge area stretching from Auckland to the Pacific Islands. Opua is the first customs port of entry for visiting yachts from the Pacific or northern Australia.

Russell Museum opened in 1956 and tells the story of the development of the town from a small Maori fishing village. Among its collections is a one-fifth scale model of Captain Cook's 'Endeavour', and Maori taonga including a small waka (canoe). There are whaling harpoons and deep sea fishing rods, cannon balls from the Battle of Kororareka 1845 and tourist china - and always a fresh, new exhibition.

Christ Church, the oldest existing church in New Zealand, has its own extensive history dating from its first service in January 1836 and welcomes visitors to its grounds and services.

More history can be seen at 'Pompallier', the sole surviving building of the French Catholic mission headquarters to the Western Pacific, uniquely French Provincial in style and housing tanning equipment and a printing press from the 1840's. It is New Zealand's oldest Catholic building, and oldest industrial building. The narrow site was crowded then with a chapel, cookhouse, well house, workshop, houses for Maori visitors and boatmen, and other outhouses. Today it is owned by the NZ Historic Places Trust serving as a working factory where you can learn about tanning and printing in those days, as well as the stories of the people who worked and lived through the fascinating times of Treaty-making and subsequent war.

Also at the south end of Russell Bay is Motu Kaiaraara, or Mill Island. In 1858 a windmill was built nearby to grind locally grown wheat, but a few years later it lost its sails in a storm.

At the north end of the Bay two fine old and well-restored homes, Cavalli House and Russell House, were built for managers of the Masefield Brothers' fish factory enterprise which ran for seventeen years from 1889, canning and smoking mullet. The fish factory has long since gone.