New Zealand - Northland - Paihia School - Room 1 - 1990 Click the link above to view all of this schools photos Do you have more information about the school or the people in this photo? Please use the comment section below to share. To search for other photos from this school, please type the schools name in to our search engine. Paihia - Paihia is the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands - 60 kilometres north of Whangarei - Located close to the historic towns of Russell and Kerikeri - Missionary Henry Williams named the mission station Marsden's Vale and eventually the Paihia became the accepted name of the settlement. - Henry Williams and his wife Marianne settled in Paihia in 1823 and built the first church there the same year. - William Williams and his wife Jane joined the Paihia mission in 1826. - Herald was a 55-ton schooner that the missionaries built and launched off the beach at Paihia on 24 January 1826. - In December 1832 the first mention of cricket being played in New Zealand was recorded by Henry Williams. - In 1835 a game of cricket was witnessed here by Charles Darwin, in December 1835 while the Beagle spent 10 days in the Bay of Islands. - In 1835 William Colenso set up the first printing press in New Zealand at Paihia. - In 1850 the mission closed and Paihia declined to a very small settlement by 1890. (Reference: Wikipedia)