Lake Ngaroro is a peat lake in the Waipa district of Waikato. It’s ten minutes from Pirongia or Te Awamutu.
The lake is surrounded by farmland. When European farmers drained the swamps for pasture they pulled rata, kahikatea and totara logs out of the ground. The logs were all found lying in the same direction and it was quite likely the trees were knocked over by the Taupo eruption of 233 AD.
The path around the lake is easy and well maintained with some interesting info boards.
I liked the fish ladder and the planting that’s been done around the lake to improve water quality. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to walk around the lake.
This battle was the largest ever fought in NZ with an estimated 16,000 warriors involved. It took place between 1790 and 1807, before muskets. The war between Maori tribes was caused by a dispute over the fish harvest.
Maori buried their taonga (treasures) in swamps to protect them from being pillaged. Uenuku is one such treasure, found in the lake area and now cared for at the Te Awamutu Museum.
The Maori maintain Uenuku was a rainbow god and it was carried into battle before being buried in the swamp surrounding Lake Ngaroro. They claim it’s the only one of it’s kind. However, two such pou (poles) were said to be on Mount Pirongia, the home of the Patupairehe. They would have long rotted out, this one was preserved by the swamp.
Is the artifact Maori or did it belong to earlier people?
Interestingly, for those who say the Moriori never were in NZ, the Moriori also have a god called Ouenuku. This confirms for me that the Moriori were in NZ first, which is what I was told as a child. Source: Tangata Whenua
This historic pa site is located at Opunake. The walk begins at Opunake Cemetery.
Te Namu pa is the site of a battle between Taranaki and Waikato. After the defeat and scattering of the Taranaki tribe at Maru in 1826, a large number of them migrated to Kapiti. But still there were a few left—not more than one hundred and fifty fighting men—and these, on the news of the approach of Waikato, gathered into their fortified pa of Te Namu, and stored it with a plentiful supply of provisions and water. There they held off a force of 800 Waikato.
The principal chief of Taranaki, who was appointed to conduct the operations in defence of the pa, was Wi Kingi Mata-katea. There was only one musket in the pa, and that belonged to him. His aim never failed; a man fell each time he discharged his gun—even if half a mile off —so long as he could see his man, he shot him.
Mata means eye so Mata-katea’s name probably translates as having a keen or accurate eye.
Although the site has a rich history we felt there was more to learn.
Walk: Taranaki 12
Petroglyphs
The history of the pa as known to the writer (Griffin) including finding a partly buried stone on which there was a petroglyph. Who knows where that’s gone. There were petroglyphs along the Taranaki coast. The rock was probably marked by the Waitaha or Te Kahui Maunga people.
Tauwhare Pa is one of the oldest pa sites in the Bay of Plenty.. It is actually three pas sites which overlook the western arm of Ōhiwa Harbour at Ohope in the Bay of Plenty. It was built by Te Hapuoneone, a tribe that many of today’s iwi descend from. Elsdon Best ‘Notes on Ancient Polynesian Migrants‘ states the Hapu-oneone were some of the ancient inhabitants of the Bay of Plenty district. They were numerous when the later canoes the Arawa and Mataatua arrived from Hawaiiki. They once occupied the district from Ohiwa across to Ruatoki.
In later times Ohiwa Harbour was between Ngati Awa on the west and Whakatohea in the east. Located on a tribal boundary, Tauwhare Pa saw more then it’s share of conflict.
In 1847, the chief of Tauwhare was Te Keepa Toihau of Ngāti Awa. His daughter, MereAira, had a child with neighbouring Whakatōhea chief Kape Tautini. When Whakatōhea laid siege to the pā site, intending to drive Ngāti Awa away before they became too powerful, MereAira raised the child Te Pirini Tautini above her head and called out; “This child I am holding in my arms is a symbol of our two tribes and could make peace or war. Unless the killing is stopped now for all time, I shall throw my child on these rocks.”
Whakatohea were so impressed by her courage that a peace deal was immediately arranged on the beach.
History
“Before the arrival of the Mataatua waka (canoe), numerous other waka encountered Ohiwa …”Whale IslandOhiwa is a shark breeding ground
From the info board:
Te Hapuoneone, led by the peacable Tama-ki-Hikurangi, were the first known residents, however over many years they were assimilated by the descendants of Awanuiarangi who later became Ngati Awa.
In 1847, when the pa was under siege, the rangitira (chief) of Tauwhare was Te Keepa Toihau.
In the 1950s, when the land was in private ownsership, preliminary work was being carried out for a proposed subdivision, destroying sections of the pa.
Walk: Bay of Plenty 18
Links
Te Hapū-oneone
In addition, Tūhoe trace their descent from the confederation of Te Hapū-oneone. These people were descendants of Hape, who came from Hawaiki on the Rangimatoru canoe, landing at Ōhiwa Harbour in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. They occupied territory from Ōhiwa inland to Waimana and over the Taiarahia range to Rūātoki. Te Hapū-oneone consisted of related tribes including Ngāti Raumoa, Ngāi Te Kapo and Ngāi Tūranga. Source: Te Ara, The first peoples
This is the site of a battleground. There’s views as well as history. First we walked to the view point at the top of the ridge overlooking the Waitara River. It’s a beautiful, peaceful spot which belies its history of conflict in the Maori Musket Wars and Taranaki Land Wars.
The pa was besieged twice during the Musket Wars. The first battle was between Te Ātiawa and Ngati Maniapoto. The second battle was between Te Ātiawa and Waikato.
In 1830 many Te Atiawa women sheltering at the pa threw themselves and their children off the 100 metre cliff rather than be killed and eaten.
Thirty years later the site again became a battleground, this time against the British in the Taranaki Land Wars of the 1860s.
After looking at the view point we looked at Pratt’s Sap, built in 1861. It’s a long zig zag trench by the side of the road.
In ‘Pratt’s Sap’, forces under Major-General T.S. Pratt tunnelled laboriously up the slopes towards a new pā, Te Arei (‘the barrier’), erected in front of freshly strengthened Pukerangiora. Te Ātiawa chief Hapurona commanded both. Pratt built eight redoubts and dug two stretches of sap (covered trench). Maori counter-attacked, most famously against number three redoubt on the night of 23 January, suffering heavy casualties in the crossfire between the redoubts. Working under cover of large sap rollers and supported by artillery fire, the British advanced. By March 1861 number eight redoubt was just 75 m from Te Arei pā, which was taking a heavy pounding. Hapurona wisely sought a truce. In a ‘settlement’ disliked by both sides, the Waikato and southern Taranaki tribes withdrew. An uneasy peace descended on Taranaki.
Unfortunately my camera malfunctioned so there’s no photos or video so I’ll have to use other people’s videos. This one is by Real New Zealand Adventures.
And here’s a video about the history of the pa by Roadside Stories.
The Maori Musket Wars
1821
In 1821 a taua led by Tūkorehu of Ngāti Maniapoto was besieged here for seven months by Te Ātiawa, who surrounded it with earthworks and palisading, adding insult to injury by dubbing the siege ‘Raihe Poaka’ (the penned-up pigs).
1831
Blood flowed here again a decade later. Te Ātiawa, weakened by recent emigration to join Te Rauparaha in the Cook Strait area, holed up at Pukerangiora after a large Waikato taua descended on North Taranaki. When the pā fell after a three-month siege, as many as 1200 may have died.
Ironically, Pukerangiora is probably better known for its role in the First (1860-61) and Second (1863-66) Taranaki Wars.
The first war was the major fight which happened after the settlement of Tataraimaka (twelve miles south of New Plymouth) was attacked and taken possession of by right of conquest from the Europeans, who had all been driven off. Many settlers were murdered, some killed in war, a large number died through disease and exposure, and the district was held since 1860 by the rebel tribes.
If you want a full history head over to my page on the The North Taranaki War where I sum up an eye witness account of events from 1863 by the Rev Samuel Ironside who succeeded in preventing one incident of bloodshed in Taranaki.
Head chief of the Ngatuwahanga and Ngatihourua tribes of Raglan and Waipa Waikato. He was a famous general and warrior; he took part in the Waikato war with the Taranaki tribes in 1830 and assisted in the siege of the Pukerangiora pa (subsequently the site of General Pratts celebrated sap in 1861) when the starved out holders of the pah attempted to escape they were captured in hundreds and brought to Te Wherowhero (afterwards King Potatau 1st) and Te Awaitaia to be killed; their worthies then proceeded to club the unfortunate prisoners with their greenstone “meres”.
This is a small bush remnant between Wanganui and Wellington overlooking Lake Waiwiri, a dune lake. This area is a rare example of an uninterrupted transition from coastal wetland to mature, dry terrace forest. The whole coast was once covered in this dense and luxurious bush and sadly it’s all gone.
There are two islands on the lake, the larger is Papaitonga and the smaller is Papawhārangi. The smaller island was constructed by the Muaūpoko (Ngati Tara) people in the late 18th to early 19th century.
The reserve is home to the endangered birds like the elusive bittern and spotless crake.
People from the Muaūpoko tribe lived on the islands in the lake but they were wiped out in a battle against Te Rauparaha.
After the local Muaūpoko tribe attacked a group including Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha, they became a target for reprisal raids by Ngāti Toa. Despite retreating to artificial islands they had built in Lakes Papaitonga and Horowhenua, large numbers of Muaūpoko were killed, and survivors fled to the nearby Tararua Range.
The Evening Post published this item on Papaitonga on 6 November 1911:
Papaitonga – NATIONAL RESERVE?
Everything is eerie and silent; there are kiwi on the islet, but you only hear them at night, and the doleful morepork keeps them company. At a turn in the path, in the glooms of the tapu grove, an eerie thing confronts one — a human skull, stuck up on a short pole, grinning as if in menace, a silent warning to “keep off the grass !” This, one finds, is an isle of skulls, a Maori Golgotha, and over the ancient battle-ground and burial-ground that skull on its tapu stick mounts guard. A few yards further on, and in a little open space on the summit of the island, a memorial of another and more picturesque kind is found. A great canoe, an olden war-canoe, carved and painted, rears itself above the trees; one end is sunk firmly in the ground and stoutly braced to keep it upright. It is a stately memento mori, tapu to the manes of the tribal dead.
Sitting here on this thrice-tapu island with a Ngati-Ruakawa companion from the little village of Muhunoa, a mile or so away, one heard some thrilling tale of Papaitonga’s pact. For this quiet island was a lively spot in the cannibal days, the early twenties of last century, when Rauparaha and Rangihaeata and their musket-armed Northern warriors happened along. Papaitonga, like. Horowhenua, and in fact all this country from Paekakarikei to Manawatu and Rangitikei, was owned by the Muaupoko and Rangitane, and some kindred tribes. The Muanpoko had a stronghold on this islet; a stockade, or “tuwatawata,” encircled it There were many canoes on the lake; when danger threatened the people withdrew to the island, taking all their dug-outs with them.
It was in about the beginning of the year 1823 that Rauparaha and his Ngatitoa-and Ngati-Awa invaded and captured this district. Muaupoko brought their fate on themselves, to a certain extent, by a massacre in this vicinity; but the wily Rauparaha had intended to take the place anyway, so the murders only brought matters to a head a little quicker.
It is believed this pataka was built at Taheke on the shores of Lake Rotoiti in the 1870s.
It is said to have been built out of a large war canoe which was drawn overland from Maketu, on the coast of the Bay of Plenty, to Rotorua, Lake, a distance of about thirty miles, by Hongi, when that great Nga-Puhi warrior attacked Mokoia Island, in Rotorua Lake, in the year 1822. Source: THE DOMINION MUSEUM. Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 56, 4 September 1911, Page 6
In 1886 the pataka was purchased by Gilbert Mair, a soldier and government agent who lived among Te Arawa. He bought it for his brother-in-law Sir Walter Buller, a prominent naturalist and politician.
After being exhibited in London and Melbourne during the 1880s Te Takinga was erected on Sir Walter Buller’s estate. When he died the Buller family donated the house to the Dominion Museum.
Horowhenua Land Dispute : The arrival of other tribes in the Wellington region from 1822 onwards led to a number of conflicts over land ownership. Shown above are the opening lines of an article that was published in the Māori newspaper Te Waka Maori o Niu Tirani in December 1873. The article, printed in Māori and English, outlines a dispute over land at Horowhenua between the Muaūpoko and Ngāti Raukawa tribes.
Muaūpoko were drawn into the wars over land and authority in the 1860s, under the leadership of Te Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (known to Pākehā as Major Kemp). Te Keepa saw the conflict as an opportunity to exact revenge on tribes that had humiliated Muaūpoko in the past. After the wars he used his influence to regain lands at Horowhenua through the Native Land Court. Some of this territory was sold in the 1880s for railway and settlement land, but subsequent intertribal disputes about its ownership led to protracted court hearings, parliamentary debate and finally a royal commission in 1896. In the process, Muaūpoko lost more land. Some was taken to pay for the commission costs, and Walter Buller, who had acted as Te Keepa’s lawyer, took Lake Papaitonga in Horowhenua as his fee.
Opepe is a place on the Napier-Taupo highway where nine Armed Constabulary soldiers from the Bay of Plenty Calvary were killed in 1869 by an advance party of Te Kooti’s troops.
A side track to the right near the car park brings you to the cemetery where they’re buried.
The bush is beautiful here, it escaped the axe and the Taupo eruption of 186 AD.
Walk: Taupo 37
Links
Te Kooti’s last battle was at the Te Porere Redoubt which we visited in Dec 2018.
Ruapekapeka Pa is the site of the fourth and last battle of the Flagstaff War, a series of battles between the Ngapuhi tribe and the British. The conflict was between Ngāpuhi chief Hone Heke and the British Crown over how the Treaty of Waitangi was to be interpreted.
The chiefs signed the Treaty in 1840 to end their inter-tribal conflict (see below) but the original intent has been forgotten. (Now there’s confusion over New Zealand’s founding document as it has become heavily politicised.)
Hone Heke ruled at Russell (Kororareka) and owned many slaves. Trouble started when the capital of New Zealand was moved to Auckland (see below) and the Governor-in-Council imposed a customs tariff on staple articles of trade, that resulted in a dramatic fall in the number of whaling ships that visited Kororareka. This caused a serious loss of revenue to Ngāpuhi. Heke then rebelled and he kept chopping down the flagpole at Russell.
The Maori were formidable fighters and the British never really won against Hone Heke. In the case of this fourth battle, Ruapekapeka Pa was taken while the Maori had temporarily left it empty.
After the Flagstaff War, Ngapuhe were left alone and consequently parts of Northland have lagged behind ever since.
The Treaty of Waitangi: On 20 March 1840 in the Manukau Harbour area where Ngāti Whātua farmed, paramount chief Āpihai Te Kawau signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty of Waitangi. Ngāti Whātua sought British protection from Ngāpuhi as well as a reciprocal relationship with the Crown and the Church. Soon after signing the Treaty, Te Kawau offered land on the Waitematā Harbour to William Hobson, the new Governor of New Zealand, for his new capital. Hobson took up the offer and moved the capital of New Zealand to Tāmaki Makaurau, naming the settlement Auckland.
Miranda on the Firth of Thames is a wetland of international significance. It’s a really important place for migratory birds as it’s part of the East Asian Australasian flyway.
Birds like the Godwit make a non-stop 11,000 km flight from Siberia. Godwits are not big gliding birds, they flap their wings the whole way. There are many different kinds of shorebirds here, but Godwits are my favourite.
The shell banks are unusual – they’re a succession of beach ridges called cheniers. This area is regarded as the finest example in the world of an active shell chenier plain.
We were on our way home from Whangamata so didn’t visit at the best time. You need to go 2-3 hours either side of high-tide. The Shorebird Centre is a good place to start – it has excellent information on the bird life. The walking track begins from the Bird Centre.
Waikato land wars
In 1863 the Maori village of Pukorokoro was shelled by the British gunboat Miranda at the beginning of the war in the Waikato. Should this area be named after a British gunboat?
This walk changed the way I look at the past. I’ve learned about the New Zealand land wars and now have a better appreciation for the hurt caused to the Maori. The actions of the British in the 1860’s caused injustice we’re still paying for.
Overlooking SH1 and the Waikato river.
This is from the information boards: “Overlooking the confluence of the Whangamarino and Waikato Rivers, this old pa was briefly re-occupied in July by a Maori force led by the Ngati Mahuta chief Te Huiraima.
They were opposing the advance of British forces along the Koheroa Ridge to the north.
Thirty Maori warriors died in the skirmishing, Te Huiraima among them. They were eventually forced back and moved south across the Whangamarino River.
By August 1863 Lieutenant General Cameron’s soldiers had occupied the deserted pa and built a redoubt nearby – Whangamarino Redoubt, 150 metres to the east.
Today, the main features on the pa is this ditch and bank defence cut across the end of the ridge. The bank is likely to have been surmounted with timber palisades.”
Whangamarino Redoubt
From this site, the British shelled Meremere which is 3-4 kms south.
War in the Waikato
Governor George Grey ordered the troops led by Cameron to invade the Waikato, because of their lust for land. “Ultimately, the war was fought over one million acres of fertile farmland that, by mid 1864, was entirely under British control.”
“It was (Grey’s general) Cameron, not William Hobson at Waitangi, who sounded the death knell of Maori independance.” Unsurprisingly and understandably it looks like Cameron’s image has been slashed at.
Te Pōrere, in the shadow of Tongariro, is the site of the last major battle of the New Zealand Wars was fought on 4 October 1869 between Te Kooti and a combined force of Armed Constabulary and Māori fighters.
Te Kooti or an ally built this British style redoubt/pa but the angles were poorly sited and the horizontal loopholes prevented the defenders from firing down into the ditch, which the government forces speedily occupied after taking out two small detached positions.
The dead from Te Porere are buried on site. Te Kooti got away into the bush with other survivors.
Te Kehakeha led him and others ‘in the general direction of Te Rena via an old Ngāti Hotu track’. Te Rena belonged to the remnant of the Ngati Hotu. (Source: The National Park District Inquiry Report, Page 173.)
Walk: Central North Island 42
Te Kooti
“Perhaps time will allow us to see this figure in perspective, and help us to decide whether he was murderer, butcher, and slayer of innocent women and children. Or was he really a military genius, a Maori hero, who suffered defeat only twice in the long years of campaigning. Was he a prophet, a spiritual leader, who could refashion the adherents of a pagan cult into warriors who could fight with rules, who could show mercy to prisoners, who could begin and end the fighting with worship of God. Te Kooti Rikirangi Te Turuki—mystery man of the Maori race—we see him now in a clearer light.”
Article: Did This Change the Course of History? by Ernest E. Bush
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