Paihia, New Zealand

PAIHIA is where it all happens. Until the mid-1990s it consisted of little more than a fish and chip shop but it's now a two-kilometre-long string of waterside motels, restaurants and holiday homes teeming with trip operators, backpacker hostels, party-oriented bars and hotels. Fortunately, Pahia's low-rise development is sympathetic to its three beautiful, flat beachside bays looking towards Russell and the Bay of Islands, encircled by forested hills. A plaque outside the current St Paul's Anglican Church on Marsden Road marks the spot where, in 1831, the northern chiefs petitioned the British Crown for a representative to establish law and order. In 1833 King William IV finally addressed their concerns by sending the first British resident, James Busby. Busby built a house on a promontory 2km north across the Waitangi River in WAITANGI – the scene some seven years later of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which ceded the nation's sovereignty to Britain in return for protection.