The Tomahawk

The gods were so angry they made the water boil.       At Kuirau Park in Rotorua can be found a remarkable assortment of steaming thermal activity, including a large extremely hot pool amidst tea-tree and swirls of steam - Kuirau Pool - named after a Maori woman who had a most unfortunate experience with a taniwha (water-monster).       Long before the coming of the white man the pool was known as Tawakahu. At that time its temperature was perfect for bathing, and successive chiefs reserved the water for the use of themselves and their families. Possession of the pool eventually passed to Tamahika who reserved the waters for the private use his very beautiful young wife Kuirau.       Kuirau swam naked in the comforting waters every morning and evening, unseen by human eyes. However she was constantly watched from the deep bottom of the pool by a vicious taniwha. This evil monster was afraid of man only em...

 “No! It’s no good, and I’m not paying for it!”        In old New Zealand, before the Treaty, there were many people from Britain and Europe who washed up on these shores for one reason or another. One of them was a rather pedestrian oil-painter from Poland who went around the country painting commissioned portraits and landscapes to make ends meet.        While up in the far north he persuaded a very dignified and elderly Maori chief to have his portrait painted. As the artist was obviously in straightened circumstances, the chief was able to bargain the fee down to five guineas.         The chief sat still for several days in the local pub while the artist worked busily with brushes and paint. At last the work was finished and the chief was invited to look upon his likeness. He picked up the canvas and examined it for some time with a critical eye before pronouncing “No! It’s ...

Body repeatedly exhumed so Maori could examine his colourful Marquesian-style tattooing.         After his murderous attacks on Gisborne, Whakatane and Mohaka Te Kooti was very much a wanted man - by now he had a price of a thousand pounds on his head. After his disasterous defeat at Ngatapa at the end of 1868 Te Kooti had retreated into the wilderness of the Urewera to be sheltered and supported by Tuhoe.         From mid-April 1869 the Government launched a three-pronged search-and-destroy mission into Tuhoe territory: with the aim of searching for Te Kooti, while relentlessly destroying Tuhoe crops, stock and villages in order to turn them against the Ringatu leader.        On 8 May the force, under Colonel Whitmore, attacked the strongly fortified pa of Tatahoata at Ruatahuna in the heart of the Urewera. While the firing raged, Captain Travers strode up and down directing ...

On Lake Rotoiti “The Leaping Place of Tikawe” gets its name from an incident when a Maori woman leapt to her death after being jilted by her husband. Lake Rotoiti near The Leaping Place of Tikawe              In days long past Tikawe, a high-born woman, lived at Te Taiki pa on a high cliff-top beside Lake Rotoiti with her husband whom she loved dearly. Historian James Cowan relates that one day Tikawe’s husband went away to the east, while she anxiously awaited his return. But as weeks turned into months she grew more worried every day, becoming increasingly emaciated and listless. One day a visitor from Heretaunga (Napier) arrived at Te Taiki with the news that Tikawe's husband had fallen in love with a woman there and had settled down with her. There was much concern on the marae at the way Tikawe had been deserted, with some wanting to raise a war party to punish the adulterer at once. Tikawe did not join the people but...

Despite facing overwhelming odds in a hastily constructed gunfighter pa at Orakau in 1864 besieged Maori defiantly declared that they would never surrender. The last battle of the Waikato War saw Maori warriors, as well as women and children, led by Rewi Maniapoto trapped in a poorly prepared defensive position - running out of food, water and ammunition while facing odds of 16 to one. Despite this, when offered a chance to surrender, they swore that they would fight “for ever and ever”.  However, shortly afterwards the majority of the defenders fled the pa from the un-besieged rear, running south towards the Punui River. A British cavalry charge and gunfire killed many of them. Rewi Maniapoto survived to continue his resistance to the taking of Maori land for many years, in conjunction with the Maori King, but this was the last time he stood and fought militarily.   Cavalry charge the defenders FURTHER READING: “The New Zealand Wars” - James Belich, p....

My nephew thought NZ history was boring until he read these graphic novels - now he’s a history buff! Sid Marsh - "Crow of Whareatua" For some reason our history teacher at PNBHS in the 1960’s seemed to make New Zealand history as boring as possible. We covered the New Zealand Company and the “Land Wars” - no mention was made of Wakefield’s imprisonment for abduction of an under-age heiress, nor of the gripping stories of the Hauhau, much less the extraordinary adventures of Kimble Bent, or the dramatic saga of Titokowarau, or even of the dramatic persuit of Te Kooti and the Ringatu through Te Urewera by bloodthirsty Queenites. Lately I have begun to read Belich, Cowan, Ross, Gudgeon, Maxwell, Binney and others with growing interest in events of the 19th Century in New Zealand. This interest has inspired me to visit as many of the places where the historical encounters took place as I can - and to document my visits in this blog. However, although English is...

  The old-time Maori used rauparaha leaves and roots to flavour meats - including human flesh. Calystegia soldanella/Rauparaha/pohue/bindweed  The rangatira (chief)Te Rauparaha is believed to have been born in the same year as the last great traditional Maori battle - Hingakaka, near Te Awamutu, 1790 (?) In a skirmish preceding the epic rout Te Rauparaha’s uncle Tiekete was killed and afterwards roasted in an oven lined with rauparaha leaves. At the feast the Waikato victors ate the flesh with pounded rauparaha roots and boasted that they would deal with his newly born nephew in the same manner after the main battle when they caught him. This was an insult of the highest order demanding utu (revenge) - a bloody revenge which need not be commensurate with the scale of the insult. Fortunately, for him, the baby Te Rauparaha escaped the massacre, and was afterwards given his name to commemorate the dreadful event and to instill throughout his entire being the need for him t...