Kerikeri has been a player in the European history of New Zealand right from its beginning. Before this, the Bay of Islands had a vibrant population of many thousands of Maori, who found it a warm and temperate place to live, with an unlimited source of food.
In 1927 the Alderton Group Settlement Scheme was the start of a new growth era for Kerikeri. The North Auckland Land Development Corporation purchased 6817 acres and divided it into blocks for passionfruit and citrus orchards.
Kemp house in the Kerikeri Basin is New Zealands oldest surviving European building and is one of the Church Missionary Society buildings built by the Reverend John Gare Butler in 1821-22 on land granted to Marsden by Hongi Hika.
Driving into Kerikeri today one is greeted with trees and shelter belts from horizon to horizon. However in the past, due to burn-offs by local Maori to prepare the ground for planting, Kerikeri was a treeless landscape that was open to the cold southerly winds.
In 1981 there was an extreme weather event that had a drastic effect on Kerikeri. 300mm of rain fell in 10 hours in Kerikeri and 417 mm of rain fell in the Puketi forest. This caused the Kerikeri river to rise and water entered the Stone Store and Kemp House.
Kendall was born in Lincolnshire, England where he came into contact with the evangelical revival of the Anglican Church. He married Jane Quickfall in 1803 and set up business as a draper and grocer, but the business did not prosper. In 1808 he decided to become a missionary.
