Matauri Bay travel guide

The views above Matauri Bay are stunning, with the numerous Cavalli Islands offering a sight that almost surpasses that of the Bay of Islands. Captain Cook named the islands after travalli (a species of fish) bought by Cook from local Maori. The Samuel Marsden Memorial Church in Matauri Bay commemorates New Zealand’s pioneer missionary who first preached the gospel in the Bay of Islands on Christmas Day 1814.

The area remains a top venue for deep-sea fishing and scuba diving. Matauri Bay has always been a popular holiday spot, but assumed additional national fame when the wreck of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior was laid to rest off the Cavallis in 1987. The famous flagship was bombed by French secret service through a ludicrous act of terrorism in Auckland in 1985. The idea was to prevent her leading a protest flotilla to the French nuclear test grounds on the Pacific atoll of Mururoa. Her sunken hull, 3 km offshore, provides the poignant home to a myriad of sea creatures while an impressive memorial on the hill overlooking the islands near the beach pays tribute to the ship, her crew (one of which was killed) and the continuing cause for a nuclear-free region. The incident sparked an international outcry and New Zealanders are in no hurry to forget, or forgive. There is an echo of Maori history, spirit and support in the Bay with the waka (war canoe) Mataatua II located near the campground. The history of this legendary canoe led to the local tribe, the Ngati Kura, offering the remains and the mana of the modern day Rainbow Warrior a final resting place.