About halfway along the 40km drive from Kohukohu via Panguru, it's worth a short detour to visit St Mary’s Church, where NZ’s first Catholic bishop was buried beneath the altar. Jean Baptiste Pompallier arrived in the Hokianga in 1838, celebrating NZ’s first Mass at Totara Point. He was interred here in 2002 after an emotional 14-week pilgrimage full of Māori ceremony brought his remains back from France.
