Title: Ngā Tohuwhenua Mai Te Rangi: A New Zealand Archeology in Aerial Photographs

Author: Kevin L. Jones

Publication details: Victoria University Press, 1994, Wellington

Digital publication kindly authorised by: Department of Conservation

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

Conditions of use

Nineteenth-century sites

Sites of the first, northern phase of fighting in the New Zealand Wars, which took place in 1845 and 1846, ²⁹ have left significant landscape elements, notably Ohaeawai and Ruapekapeka. Fortifications important in the opening stages of the fighting were Puketutu in the Okaihau locality, and Ohaeawai near Ngawha, inland Bay of Islands. There is little to be seen today at Puketutu. ³⁰ Ohaeawai is now the site of a church, St Michael's, of the Anglican Māori pastorate. The stone walls enclosing the churchyard are understood to lie on the line of the original trench and stockade. They were probably built in 1870-71 at the same time as the church was built. ³¹ The stockade line may have remained as a slight but distinct perimeter trench in 1870, 25 years after the fighting, and the workmen may have followed it in creating the wall. In its original form, the fortification had a distinctive double stockade, with a screen of heavy support posts, external padding of bundles of flax, and a firing page break

Ruapekapeka, scene of fighting between the British and Kawiti in the summer of 1845-46

The pā lies on a broad ridge and consists of a perimeter of closely spaced rifle pits, with many pits within the defended area. The perimeter originally had a substantial stockade in places and a solid screen of tree trunks designed to resist shelling or solid cannon balls. The screen or stockade was immediately outside the distinctive line of rectangular pits forming the perimeter. Note the use of a distinct bastion to the south (bottom of the photograph) and the flanking gun pits at the north-west and north-east corners. The well (fenced for safety) is at bottom left immediately outside the main perimeter. The pā occupies an area of about 110 by 80 m. In the event, most of Kawiti's force had left the pā during the shelling, and had occupied the slopes to the south (in the foreground in this view). When the pā was assaulted by British troops on foot, they found little resistance until they attempted to go beyond the southern perimeter towards the forest edge. The view is to the north.

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The British forward position on the ridgeline about 300 m north of Ruapekapeka

The faint trace of ditch and bank enclosure is the artillery position. When this position was established there appears to have been some concern about fire from the pā and the possibility of a flanking counter-attack, hence the entrenchment of the artillery. To the rear of the entrenchments is a small enclosure said to be the 'first aid post' (another possibility is a munitions store). The artillery position is approximately 35 by 25 m in plan. The view is to the southeast. The photo appears to be out of focus because of the indistinct nature of the archaeological features.

gap at the bottom. On the interior of the screen (peke-rangi ³² ) was a rifle trench and breastwork perimeter. The pā was subjected to an unsuccessful assault by marines and infantry, and many casualties resulted. ³³

Of the surviving nineteenth-century sites in Auckland and Northland, one is widely recognised as being of national significance. Ruapekapeka, the last engagement in the northern phase of fighting in the New Zealand Wars, lies in hill country about 10 km south of the inner, estuarine reaches of the south-western Bay of Islands. The British soldiers used heavy cannon and howitzers with ball and shell against the pā; rockets were also used. Kawiti, the principal chief of the group occupying the pā, had designed the site with this in prospect. The interior defences of Ruapekapeka consisted of deep pits roofed over with timber and earth, 'bomb shelters', while the perimeter was defended by a heavily timbered palisade, flax-padding, and a continuous line of rectangular pits at the foot of an inner bank. Bastions and flanking angles were formed in the perimeter. These earthwork features all show clearly in the aerial photograph view.

In the fighting, the northern edge of the stockade was breached by cannon balls. As a result of the persistent cannon-fire, most of Kawiti's forces had been forced to camp in the rear of the defensive perimeter. On the advice of their Māori scouts, British troops attacked suddenly, on a Sunday morning. They found the fortification only lightly defended, and forced Kawiti himself to abandon it. The engagement was finished finally by the British forces occupying the pā against Kawiti's counter-attack from breastworks and the forest edge to the south. ³⁴ The position in which the British troops hac their cannon also survives as a shallow ditch and breast work. I photographed this site in February 1992, just after it fell into a light overcast. Luckily, there were distinct crop marks (browned grass) on the breastworks and their pattern shows clearly in the photograph.