Pompallier Mission

Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier's French Catholic mission built this in 1842 as a printery, tannery and store - and it is the oldest surviving industrial building in New Zealand, put up in pise de terre, rammed earth, by workers who knew the technique from France. Inside, the mission printed and bound around forty thousand books in Maori: prayer books and catechisms, on a hand press, with leather tanned on the premises from local hides. The restoration returned the building to that working configuration, so a guided tour walks through tannery, printery and bindery with the equipment in place and demonstrations of the processes. That is what distinguishes it from most mission houses, which are presented as domestic interiors. The garden runs down to the waterfront. Russell itself was the country's first permanent European settlement and briefly its capital, with a reputation in the 1830s that earned it the name hellhole of the Pacific.

What you actually see

• The rammed-earth building - 1842, the oldest industrial building in the country.
• The printery - hand press and type, with demonstrations.
• The tannery - leather worked on site for the bindings.
• The garden - running down to the Russell waterfront.

When to go

Any season. Guided tours only, running to a schedule - check times before taking the ferry across. Russell is a passenger ferry ride from Paihia.

Honest expectations

Entry is by guided tour and ticketed; you cannot wander. Tour times are fixed and limited. Getting there means a ferry or a long road detour round the inlet.

Nearby

Christ Church and Flagstaff Hill are in Russell; Waitangi and Paihia are across the water.