Paihia-(Northland, New Zealand) A small coastal settlement in the Bay of Islands,

The word doesn’t exist in Te Reo (Māori language) and local legend on the tourist track will tell you a story about the word being part Māori ‘Pai’ (good) and part English ‘hia’ (here).

Good here in the early 1800s was the Christian side of the Harbour, on the right side as you sailed in, opposite Kororăreko (The Hellhole of the Pacific) which has an equally mischievous story about ‘penguin soup’.

Te Reo is a Pagan conceptual language and the word more likely means a place of many things, a place to watch the sunrise, a place of wonder, a place to fish, a place of song.

Paihia is quite accurately all of that by description, and you could easily reflect on that, sitting across the harbour in Kororăreko (now Russell) watching the sun set over the hills behind the township.

Before the Covid Pandemic Paihia was a world renowned tourist tryst – a must see, must do, for the younger generation, to fall in love with the place and many did, finding cheap accommodation in the lodges and work in the vibrant tourist sector with its associated Mardi Gras mix of amateur and professional mussos.

A truly international experience, where you could spend time with someone from every continent and many more countries in one day.

An interesting array of travellers and a mix of many philosophical views. A Jew that hated religion and a German that told his mum it was such a wonderful place she came to visit while he was there, and so many accents, from Welsh to everyday Australian – a sense of what the community might have been like pre-treaty, where local commerce and creativity prospered in isolation from civilization.

To pick one conversation though, among the many would be one with a young European traveller and her view of the future (These young tourist types typically held a much more definitive view than Kiwi kids) where her thoughts brought to mind George Bush Junior on the 6 o’clock news last century saying, “We come in the name of God.”

She knew exactly what I was talking about. “My grandfather told me about this.” She replied.
She went on to recount his views of it being a sad day and the start of a war we would regret.

How quickly all that changed – old normal out the door and in with the new.

We would be left fighting for that, our freedom of movement, our freedom of expression, our freedom to create, all that had existed quite happily in one small place at the end of the earth.

Shaz, was equally interesting, the young Jewish woman that hated religion. I took the opposite view though that civilization wouldn’t have gotten this far without it – the damage, the suffering the human cost wasn’t worth it in her opinion and sitting in Paihia then no doubt supported her world view which would likely never sway – especially now with the Middle East looking to have descended into an unstoppable battle for the Holy City.

War has no doubt over time killed more men than disease and progress or desperation been the cause rather than religion – now as we watch, it’s a sideshow to economy as civilisation is taken to the edge of existence by the competiting desires of the elite.