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Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century:

Tawa-tawhiti

Tawa-tawhiti.

After the defeat of the Nga-Puhi expedition under Rangi-tuke (son of Te Koki), near Tamaki Heads, Auckland isthmus, about April page 393 or May, 1827, the Ngati-Whatua and their allies of Lower Waikato were much elated at having delivered such a heavy blow at their old enemies. No doubt this defeat was due principally to the brave Ngati-Tipa tribe under their warrior chief Nini, whose descendants still live at Waikato Heads; but Ngati-Whatua assisted, and in so doing, wiped out part of the deep debt of revenge they owed to Nga-Puhi for the overwhelming defeat they had suffered at the hands of the latter tribe at the battle of Te Ika-a-ranga-nui in 1825. The news also, that their great enemy, Hongi Hika, had recently (about January, 1827), been wounded by a bullet in the chest, at a fight called Hunuhunua, on the Mangamuka branch of the Hokianga, gave rise to hopes that the opportunity had now occurred for paying back Nga-Puhi in their own coin.

With these hopes Ngati-Whatua, aided by Ngati-Tipa, raised a taua and started from Waikato Heads with their canoes, passing over the two portages at Waiuku and Otahuhu to the east coast at the Tamaki, the scene of Rangi-tuke’s defeat. From here they paddled up the coast, passed Te Kawau island, and landing on the Tawatawhiti Peninsula, fell on a pa, said to have been occupied by Nga-Puhi, but probably by the Parawhau of Whangarei (who are frequently included in the former name by the southern Maoris), and took it with considerable slaughter. From this expedition the taua returned to Waikato, and about the page 394 same time some of the Ngati-Paoa tribe of the Thames Gulf also migrated to Waikato Heads and settled for a time, though the greater part of the tribe remained in their homes until later, and then moved off to Waikato, fearing that Nga-Puhi would retaliate for their losses at Tawa-tawhiti, in which their anticipations were realized in the same, or early in the following year.