Walk 64, 4th April 2021
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.
Opepe is the site of a former frontier town about 15kms from Taupo. It was built in 1870 soon after the attack by Te Kooti’s forces in 1869, and abandoned in 1885. This is the walk on the other side of the road from the soldier’s cemetery at Opepe, which we did on 4th April 2021. On 28th July 2026 we came back and did the rest of the walk.
Walk: Taupo 37
Links
Te Kooti’s last battle was at the Te Porere Redoubt which we visited in Dec 2018.
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