Photos

Kerikeri River
Bay of Islands

Lying at the northern end of the Bay of Islands, Kerikeri is actually located inland but Kerikeri River leads out to sea. Being slightly less than 20 kilometres long it is hardly a significant waterway, but because it terminates at one of the most important historic sites in the country, the Stone Store Basin , it is known to countless thousands of tourists who visit Kerikeri each year.

Part of the history of the river is that it was used by chief Hongi Hika whose Kororipo Pa is about 100 metres across the basin from the bridge. Hongi used the river and tracks beside it to commute to Kororipo, his coastal pa, which played a significant part in the historic Musket Wars. These were battles in the early 1800s when there was deadly inter-tribal conflict between various groups of Maori, primarily on the North Island in New Zealand. The conflict was a direct result of the introduction of the musket into the Maori culture. Northern tribes, such as the rival Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua , were the first to obtain the weapon and inflicted heavy casualties upon each other and on neighbouring tribes, some of whom had never seen the musket before.
In time, all the tribes traded to obtain muskets and the conflict ultimately reached an uneasy stalemate after decimating the population of some tribes and drastically shifting the boundaries between areas controlled by various tribes.

As you can see, this is as far as the boats can come up Kerikeri River. This photo was taken in the Kerikeri basin.

From Wikipedia.com