Living the history at Rangihoua Heritage Park

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Some memorials are worth a quick squiz; others are a destination in themselves. Rangihoua Heritage Park 40 minute’s drive from Kerikeri is most definitely the latter and if you plan on a visit, be sure to pack a picnic and sturdy walking shoes, and to allow 2-3 hours to enjoy the experience.

Design, design

Opened in December 2014, and commemorating the arrival of the first missionaries in New Zealand, the park had been designed from scratch, with every inch an architect’s dream come true. In fact, so dramatic and well executed is the entire project that even if you have no interest in early New Zealand history, the destination is still well worth a visit.

Dramatic entrance

Prepare to be wowed with your first experience at the park: the site of Rore Kāhu. A deceptively simple structure with walls of rammed earth and a kite-like roof, it lives up to its name which translates as ‘soaring hawk’. A gravel path leads you via the rear of the building to an astonishing view of the history you are about to walk through. But before you begin your physical journey, the building itself reminds you of the focus of this historic park. Two struts holding the roof aloft frame not only the view but also a clean-lined shelf that is unmistakably reminiscent of a pulpit. Not quite a church, not quite an enclosed space, Rore Kāhu reminds us we are on a pilgrimage into the land which the missionaries first ventured but which was already imbued with the spiritual world of the Māori.

Views into the past

The land on which Rangihoua Park is situated was once home to several hundred Māori, presided over by Chief Ruatara who later became a friend of Reverend Samuel Marsden. Winding down toward the sea on a well formed trail taking approximately half an hour to cover, visitors to Rangihoua are surrounded by signs of this early Māori habitation. Evidence of cultivation can be seen on the slopes while terraces on the hill above the ocean outline the site that was Rangihoua Pā.

Living the history

The beauty of Rangihoua is that visitors really feel they are living the history. Trudging along the same route that must have been walked countless times by local Māori and missionaries alike, a series of information panels details not only dates and events but also introduces the very characters who inhabited this historical place. inspire.With every twist and turn of the trail, a new personality emerges to inform and

Culminating in the cross

When you finally emerge from your hike, it is to find yourself confronted with Marsden Cross, the austere stone memorial which marks the very spot where Reverend Samuel Marsden delivered his first sermon on Christmas Day 1814. Many of us are familiar with the ‘Te harinui’, the folk song-come-Christmas-carol written by Willow Macky about this historic event, but to see the site first hand is a moving experience for many. Close to the cross are terraces which likely mark the place where the missionaries built their first homes and New Zealand’s first school building.

More missionary history

If Rangihoua inspires you to look further into the missionary history, there are several other sites of interest to visit while in Northland. Be sure to check them out through Heritage New Zealand’s informative online site.