The Story

Founded by the Church Missionary Society at the request of Reverend Samuel Marsden and by invitation of Ngāpuhi chiefs at Okuratope Pā, Te Waimate served as a midpoint between the Bay of Islands in the east and the Hokianga Harbour in the west, and while rural, it played host to local and international visitors travelling between the coasts. One of these was Victorian scientist and evolutionist Charles Darwin who spent Christmas here in 1835.

The town was fronted by three Georgian style Mission Houses, one of which survives today, with a swath of workers homes and industrial buildings providing the many elements of a settlement striving to be self-sufficient. Through the length of town were the mission houses but also a flour mill, printery, carpenters' shop, brickworks, blacksmith, school and church.

The purpose of the mission was to teach British farming practices and promote the ideals of Western civilisation to Māori, while they worked to produce goods for sale to European ships and at the Stone Store in nearby Kerikeri. But these attempts to impose European culture on Māori in this controlled fashion (through teaching those who also did the labour) failed to attract many Māori and the station gradually fell into disrepair. 

Its position as one of New Zealand’s earliest bicultural settlements was one of the reasons that Te Waimate hosted the second signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on the 9th and 10th of February 1840.

Te Waimate Mission is proudly cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga