Hellhole of the Pacific No settlement in New Zealand can claim a past as colourful and chequered as that of Kororareka in the Bay of Islands, later to become Russell. In the 1830s it was such a wild place that it earned the name "hellhole of the Pacific". Whalers, sealers, escaped convicts, seamen and adventurers descended on the little Maori village. Drunkenness, debauchery, grog shops and the oldest profession prolife... Full description