Although it was once known prosaically as ‘the hellhole of the Pacific’, those coming to Russell for debauchery will be sadly disappointed: they’ve missed the orgies on the beach by 170 years. Instead they’ll find a sweetly historic town that is a bastion of cafés, gift shops and B&Bs.
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Before it was known as a hellhole, or even as Russell, it was Kororareka (Sweet Penguin), a fortified Ngapuhi village. In the early 19th century the tribe permitted it to become Aotearoa’s first European settlement. It quickly became a magnet for rough elements such as fleeing convicts, whalers and drunken sailors. By the 1830s dozens of whaling ships at a time were anchored in the harbour. Charles Darwin described it in 1835 as full of ‘the refuse of society’.
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