The Bay of Islands, named by British explorer Captain James Cook, is where European and Maori cultures intersected in 1769. Aboard the HMS Endeavour, Cook spent a week charting the bay, an irregular 10-mile-wide inlet that forms a natural harbor. Seventy years later, at what would become the first permanent European settlement in New Zealand, Maori chiefs signed their accord with the British Crown, a pact that became the nation’s founding document. The bay itself has a mild subtropical climate, abundant marine life and countless sheltered coves and inlets. And with a handful of tranquil seaside towns, it offers nearly limitless opportunities for game fishing, cruising, sailing, sea kayaking, diving and snorkeling.