Only a few places in New Zealand are of great historical importance. For one, the nation is very young, and second, Russell and Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, where the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document, between Māori and the Crown was signed within sight of Russell in 1840, claim almost all the history there is.

When you visit Russell today, you’ll find a village that is quaint (there really is no better word to describe it), sleepy (I was assured by our hosts that it is decidedly not so in peak season with the borders open), and historic (in such a way even Europeans would agree with that description).

Wooden homes with ornate wrap-around verandas are set in lush gardens, and a beautiful beachfront promenade runs the length of Kororareka Bay with some of New Zealand’s oldest heritage buildings set back a certain distance from the beach.

As we strolled down the waterfront, the sun disappeared without much ado behind a curtain of grey obscuring the horizon and through a window of The Gables, I caught a glimpse of old photographs hanging on a wall, gleaming Kauri panelling, and a sloping wooden floor.

The restaurant dates to 1847 and almost next door, the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, which has been operating since 1827, holds New Zealand’s first liquor licence.

At the far end of the seaside promenade, the Pompallier Mission and Printery, built in 1842 as the headquarters of the French Catholic mission, is considered the country’s oldest industrial building.

This is a serene and respectable little community, steeped in early European settler history but without grandeur. You’d never guess that Russell, known as Kororareka in the early 19th century, was once the lawless “hellhole of the Pacific” where raucous sailors wreaked havoc on shore leave.

Nor that this hellhole developed into the biggest whaling port in the Southern Hemisphere and became the first permanent European settlement in New Zealand. It is in Russell’s Christ Church that New Zealand was proclaimed a British possession by its first governor Captain Hobson and Okiato (Old Russell), a few kilometres south of present-day Russell, was made the capital of the nation.

After exploring Russell, we set out on the Bay of Islands Walkway that features fabulous postcard views of subtropical bushland and turquoise waters most of the way.

The 17-kilometre loop links the Russell to Okiato Walkway with the Paihia to Opua Walkway on the opposite seashore by two short ferry rides across the channel between Okiato and Opua, and Paihia and Russell.

The track itself is as beautiful and varied as the scenery. Skirting the water’s edge, it runs across a sandy beach, then swoops along a boardwalk across wetlands, dips into swampy mangroves, and wanders on the soft forest floor through native coastal bush.