Waikato
is known for its rich, fertile farmland, so it is not surprising that this region
was the scene of significant battles during the Land Wars of the mid nineteenth
century.
It is here that early missionary activity encouraged the Maori
to adopt European farming methods. Trade between the two groups initially flourished
as the Maori found a ready market for their produce, and exploited European muskets
and ammunition in their tribal conflicts. As European settler numbers increased,
Maori became increasingly suspicious of their intentions. Fighting broke out in
the 1840s, and increased resistance to selling land during the 1850s led to an
effort to set up a Maori nation under its own King to ensure the survival of Maori
culture, and retention of land in Maori hands.
The story of the Land Wars
in the Waikato is closely related to the King movement. The belief that the Maori
King posed a subversive challenge to Queen Victoria increased existing tensions
over land. Finally, the government took steps which provoked the Maori into fighting
to prevent the loss of their lands and their identity as a people. Final resistance
was met at Orakau, where 300 Maori held out for three days against great odds
in half-built fortifications.
The bravery and defiance of the Maori resisting
British invasion in Waikato has given New Zealand history one of its most stirring
chapters.
Alexandra Redoubt (1872)
Bellot Street,
Pirongia
One of the best preserved earthworks of the New Zealand
Wars, built by the Armed Constabulary in 1869 when Pirongia was garrisoned during
the Te Kooti campaigns. It was intended as a place of refuge for local families.
There is still a full two metres of escarpment from the bottom of the ditch to
the top of the bank. It is easier here than anywhere else to appreciate how redoubts
were built.
Orams Road,
off State Highway 1 south of Mercer. Follow track from gate and stile.
Remains of earthworks built by the British army in 1863.
On a platform below the south side of the redoubt was a battery from which guns
shelled the Maori position at Meremere to the south.
After the British had taken Meremere, the Maori retreated
to fortifications at Rangiriri. An outnumbered Maori force was attacked by 1500
British troops in one of the crucial battles of the Waikato campaign on 20 November
1863, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Part of the central redoubt
has been preserved and the grassed over ditches and banks give an impression of
the formidable task the British undertook in attempting to drive the Maori from
their defences.
Talbot Street, 0.5 km from Rangiriri township, off Rangiriri
Road.
After the Rangiriri battle, this redoubt was built on Maori
earthworks nearby to house a British garrison. It is named
after Wiremu Te Wheoro, who occupied it on behalf of the government
in 1868-1869 during the Te Kooti campaigns. Noticeboards on
site here and at Rangiriri Pa explain the significance of
the earthworks.
Just a stone's throw from State Highway 1 at the small North Waikato
township of Rangiriri is a grassy hilltop from which pausing travellers
can look out over the Waikato River and its valley of farms.
At dusk, it is an island of green calm, a welcome respite from the constant
roaring of the rushing traffic. But a glance at the ground offers evidence
of a more traumatic time. The hilltop is gouged with broad, deep trenches
softened with a carpet of grass.
Here, in this modest place, people fought and died during the Waikato
War of 1863-64, which preceded confiscation of Maori land. Maori made
the trenches as part of a system of defensive earthworks featuring a central
redoubt that commanded the river, a bullock track and a swamp around Lake
Kopuera. Read
more
Explore New Zealand's unique cultural, historic and natural heritage,
while having the adventure of your life.
Heritage Cruises New Zealand
Travel off the beaten track, to the eco-wonderland of King Country,
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The vessel for this informative tour is the historic “Lady Kawhia”,
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venture on the untouched Kawhia Harbour.
Run by families who have lived in and around Kawhia for centuries,
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