Russell Museum |

Saltwater in our Veins

Ko Ahau Anō Tētahi i Reira, Saltwater in our Veins is another Russell Museum contribution to Tuia 250, the national commemoration which took place in October 2019. An ambitious new exhibition charting the Bay’s long and remarkable maritime history and its enduring traditions....
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Īpipiri

Russell Museum now has a great new exhibit on display for visitors to experience, an interactive digital map called Īpipiri. Īpipiri is the Māori name for the Eastern Bay of Islands, and the mapping table now joins Captain Cook’s Endeavour as a museum must see attraction. Great...
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Displays

The function of the Museum is to collect and preserve, exhibit and interpret, and to undertake research on people and events in Russell’s history. Major upgrades to Russell Museum took place from 2002 onwards. Richard Wolfe, specialist museum design consultant, worked...
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Maori

The Bay of Islands was settled by Maori in voyaging canoes almost a thousand years ago. Russell, known by its original name Kororareka, was one of a number of small coastal settlements, whose numbers increased seasonally as inland Maori came to the coast to fish. Originally...
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Endeavour

Explorers Captain James Cook gave the Bay of Islands its English name when he visited in 1769. He anchored off Motuarohia just around the Kororareka headland with a crew of scientists, botanists and Tupaia a High Priest navigator from Polynesia. Impressed with what he found, he...
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"Russell Museum - Te Whare Taonga o Kororāreka"

Telling the stories of Īpipiri Bay of Islands

New Opening days

The Russell Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Kororāreka is presently open 5-days a week.

Our new opening days will be Thursday to Monday (Closed Tuesday & Wednesday), 10.00 – 4.00 pm (last admissions 3.30). School groups and visiting groups can be accommodated on request, please contact us.

Īpipiri

Russell Museum now has a great new exhibit on display for visitors to experience, an interactive digital map called Īpipiri. Īpipiri is the Māori name for the Eastern Bay of Islands, and the mapping table now joins Captain Cook’s Endeavour as a museum must see attraction. Great fun for the kids, its two animated re-enactments brilliantly bring to life how our region and its ecology were first formed and developed.

Whaling

Because of good reports from early European visitors, Kororāreka became a popular base for visiting Pacific whalers who needed a base to pick up supplies, get repairs done, and give their men shore time. For nearly a hundred years whalers, particularly American, visited the port. Kororāreka changed to accommodate their needs with waterfront grog shops and brothels a feature. It had quite the reputation.