Paihia is the main tourist town in the Bay of Islands in the far north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located close to the historic towns of Russell, and Kerikeri, 60 kilometers north of Whangarei. The origin of the name Paihia is obscure. One, possibly apocryphal, attribution is to Reverend Henry Williams. When Williams first arrived in the Bay of Islands he knew only a little of the M?ori vocabulary, one of the words he did know being �pai� meaning 'good'. When they came to the place now known as Paihia, he told his M?ori guide �Pai here�. Henry Williams named the missionary station Marsden's Vale; eventually the name Paihia became the accepted name of the settlement.
Nearby is the historic settlement of Waitangi to the north, and the residential and commercial areas of Haruru Falls/Watea to the west; the township of Opua and the small settlement of Te Haumi to the south.
The population of Paihia was 1770 in the 2006 Census, a decrease of 69 from 2001
