The Massacre at Opepe

On 6 June 1869 some of Te Kooti’s mounted guerilla forces completely surprised a group of local cavalry encamped at Opepe (on what is today the Napier-Taupo Road) - in the one-sided shootout nine troopers were killed, five managed to escape.


Those killed are buried near where they fell in a small graveyard a few minutes walk through beautiful bush from the main road, in a DoC reserve.
Other graves here are from the later Armed Constabulary position across the road.



Belich describes the incident succinctly: “Te Kooti’s vanguard on the march from the Urewera [towards Taupo]....received information that a small party of colonist cavalry was camped at Opepe [an old Maori village], expecting to be joined by some kupapa [Queenite Maori]. Posing as the kupapa, some of ...[the] men entered the camp peacefully. The colonists were volunteers, not constabulary, and they incautiously accepted the visitors at face value. The Ringatu warriors killed nine without loss to themselves - the largest number of European combat troops ever killed by Te Kooti’s forces in a single action.”

from “The New Zealand Wars” p.279





Peter Maxwell supplies some detail: The Ringatu “...stopped at the edge of the village in plain view, then called a greeting. A trooper responded with a wave...He believed the riders to be [friendly] Arawa. The Ringatu came in, walking their horses, their body language casual, their demeanor friendly, but with their rifles ready to hand across the pommels of their saddles. The militiamen came out to greet the newcomers - leaving every carbine and revolver inside their whares.....rifles were levelled...The troopers were cut down in seconds...the survivors fleeing into the scrub amidst a flurry of bullets.”


The surviving troopers fled back their headquarters (Fort Galatea), covering 40 miles of rough country in 24 hours. One naked and barefoot.
Meanwhile the leader of the unit, Cornet Angus Smith, who had been wounded in the foot, escaped the Maori and headed for Tapuaeharuru (Taupo), but was recaptured, stripped and tied with flax to a tree. After struggling with his bonds for either two or four days (reports vary) Smith freed himself and crawled either naked or bootless and without food for either six or eight days to Fort Galatea.
For this feat he was awarded the New Zealand Cross - the colonial equivalent of the Victoria Cross. However, some commentators at the time regarded Smith’s story as being too good to be true, and felt that he had merely become lost - and invented the tale to explain his time reaching the Fort, and to deflect scrutiny of his laxity in guarding the camp.

from: “Frontier” p.294

At the reserve

...walk up through the bush...
...to the site....


Opepe (“The Place of the Moth”) was an ancient Maori village used seasonally by bird hunters. It was a crossroads from where tracks radiated to the Bay of Plenty, the Urewera, Taupo, Waitahanui and Napier.



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