Hell Hole of the Pacific

What? Russell, New Zealand?  This peaceful little town with its neat mowed lawns, shade draped streets and gentle people is the Hell Hole of the Pacific? 

Well, it is if you believe the enactors from a century or so ago.  The local people dress up as town officials, temperance workers, sailors, strumpets, gamblers and drunks.  The town crier announces the next scene and everyone moves to watch the story unfold. A town council is elected, temperance workers carry sign decrying Demon Rum, ladies of the night drape themselves over interested sailors (or others) and the story goes on.  In one scene the town high hatted official has a duel with the town drunk, but only wounds him.  A young woman corners a couple of stranger and tells how she came to this town with her whale ship captain husband, but he died leaving her with 3 small children.  How is a poor girl to support her family?

All this takes place along the street fronting the harbor while families stroll along with their dogs and other families sitting by the beach or wade in the sandy surf.  There are historic buildings and a huge fig tree which local historical society members will gladly explain to you.  We strolled along some of the streets away from the water in search of the church.  Instead, we found the Russell Bowling Club where a tournament was taking place.  When we stopped to watch, one of the members invited us to come in and sit in the shade.  Lawn bowling involves rolling a small ball down the grass for a distance of about 50 yards.  Then the two teams take turn rolling balls slightly larger than softballs to try to get as close to the little white ball as possible.  These balls have a weight off-center in the center so that when they are rolled, they go on a curved line.  The trick is to somehow control that curve to avoid other balls and get close to the white ball or to hit your opponents ball if it is too close to the target.  A woman who spends 6 months in Colorado and six months in Russell explained the game to us.

We finally found the church and its cemetery, where anther historical volunteer was explaining the history.  Inside the church, all the pews had small needle-pointed cushions.  A book in the narthex explained each cushion and told which local lady did the needlepoint.