Occasionally Auckland Sketchbook escapes the city to somewhere interesting — and close. This time the sketchbook got a workout in The Bay of Islands . Only 3.5 hours by car and a world away from work. The sketch above was made in down-town Paihia, it doesn't look it, but it is literally behind the main street. The view is the back of an old homestead called Williams House . I was attracted by the orchard of very old fig trees on the left that had me imagining eating juicy ripe figs. Sadly they weren't in season but it must be a fun place at harvest time. Right over the other side of the bay you will find his falling down old house on Matauwhi Bay. For a while there the water had a turquoise glow until the sun went into hiding. This is Pompallier House and Clendon Cottage in Russell sketched with my back to the sea. I may have used a little too much artistic licence in moving them close enough together to fit on my page so don't look too closely. Anyway, I have sketched Po...
At the end the Twin Coast Cycle Trail just past the Horeke Tavern (if you are traveling east to west) is the Māngungu Mission station. As I mentioned in the last post, the Horeke Hotel was closed for renovations rather than dispensing the amber liquid that our cycling weary legs craved. Turns out Māngungu was closed too when we got there. Not to worry though it's a spectacular spot well worth a look.
The mission house itself looks out from it's perch over the Hokianga Harbour, over the cemetery, church, a bunch of mangroves and on to the northern end of the harbour.
Built around 1838, the strange thing is that when the reverend left Māngungu for Auckland in 1855 – he took the house with him to Onehunga where it stood until being returned to Māngungu and restored in the 1970s!
The mission was the site of the largest signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Over 70 chiefs added their signature and apparently hundreds of waka were tied up in the bay below – it must have been a sight!
Not all chiefs (I guess this is the melancholy part) were keen to sign this treaty with the Crown designed 'to ensure the welfare of Queen Victoria's subjects and to promote the health, civilisation, education and spiritual care of the natives'
They were right to be sceptical - within 10 years 4 million acres of land had been confiscated or 'purchased'.
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