Russell

The history of Russell dates back to before it was named in 1844 . When Captain Cook sailed Endeavour into the Bay of Islands in 1769 the town was already an established settlement for the Ngare Raumati people.

There is a famous pub the Duke of Marlborough which to-day has been greatly renovated and we enjoyed  dinner there. The first licensee John Johnson, a time-expired convict, established a grog shop there in 1827. We hiked up Flagstaff hill which has an extraordinary history of the British four times erecting a flagstaff and each time it was chopped down by the local Maoris. Eventually the Maoris put a flag staff up themselves and after that there was peace.(It was too wet to take photos of the flagstaff).

There is also a Swordfish Club which became world famous as a result of the angler Zane Grey promoting it. Each year they have an International Billfish Tournament. We had dinner there on our second evening in Russell.

There is a wonderful group of mainly volunteers who operate Russell Radio - Great Escape Charters requested us to check in with them each day and inform them of our float plan.