The other side

GB and I have enjoyed a few days each summer tripping around Northland for the past several years.  The north is rich in natural beauty and is also rich in history.  Not only did the first Maori canoe land in Northland but it was also where the first European settlers arrived in the eighteenth century.

GB commented on the photo I posted yesterday of the country's first police station that it must have the most desirable location for a police residence in NZ and what my readers can't see is the view and the location.

So here's what you see when you point the camera in other directions when walking along The Strand at Russell, where the police station stands. 

The house from the other direction, its view partially blocked by the Moreton Bay Fig Tree ( Ficus macrophylla), planted 1870.

Turn with your back to the house and you face the jetty where tourist boats depart on trips around the bay and where the passenger ferry carries folk from Paihia on the other side of the bay.

Next to the police station stands the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, the first licensed establishment in the country.

 Down along The Strand you will find an old whaling boat, one of the very few remaining.  It's hard to imagine something so small out on the sea hunting whales.

Alongside the whaling boat stands the old crane that was set up on the first wharf at Russell in 1866.

 
Just around the corner there's a seat made from the handmade bricks from the chimney of the house of Tamati Waka Nene, a Maori chief who was granted land there in 1866.



All places of interest are marked by discreet blue signs, making it easy to learn the history of the area.

 And for a different view of the little town here's a view from Flagstaff Hill.

I also found a shot of the Stone Store at Kerikeri that gives a bit of an idea of where it sits beside the inlet.  I nearly deleted it because it didn't turn out as I'd hoped but it does paint a bit of a picture.