The Bay of Islands has a central place in NZ early history.  It is a superbly sheltered bay with many anchorages, and was where the treaty of Waitangi was signed.  It was the seat of government for a while.

Nowadays it is renowned for its tourist trade.  The unfortunate thing about tourists (and this, of course, excludes us), is that they generate an environment which obliterates the environment they have come to see.  So it is with Paihia – the bay itself is beautiful, but its beauty depends on a quiet, homogenous, natural visual environment.  Which is in direct contrast to the carefully crafted environment of the commercialised tourist trap.  Here every sign is designed to be eye catching, every billboard to offer something for sale.

The simple fact is that nature cannot compete with the visual environment in which it is sold.  Even the Grand Canyon, or Milford Sound is diminished – and less imposing places obliterated – by the commercial barrage attendant upon tourism.  To me, that often makes these places worthless to see, and pointless to visit.

And so it is with Paihia and the Bay – perhaps once a beautiful little seaside town with an exquisite beach and a lovely view across the Bay to impressive cliffs and intriguing anchorages, now it is a busy, restless, clamouring, visually noisy road filled with pretty well everything it originally was not.  Pity.