Position 39 02.712S 175 35.598E

Still drizzling … on the way to Lake Taupo passed the Mahuia rapids  The river here feeds into a power station and signs all over the place to get out of your canoe or kayak by the time you reached road bridge downstream.   

Te Porere is a battle site where a Maori guerrilla fighter called Te Kooti fought government forces.  Te Kooti was arrested as a spy and sent to the Chatham Islands despite there being no evidence against him – other than he was, apparently, a charismatic leader.  He escaped with other prisoners and was then chased throughout central North Island.  In between running fights he launched attacks on other Maori settlements to get ammunition and weapons, and killed other Maori, which upset both Maori and white settlers.  To cut a long story short on 4^th October 1869 Te Kooti fought with his followers against 500 government troops and their Maori allies here at Te Porere.  At the end of the day 41 people were dead and Ti Kooti had eluded capture.  Today this site is regarded as a wahi tapu (sacred site).  Te Kooti dug two redoubts with which he could defend himself.  A redoubt is defensive dug out.  There are two at this site.  This is the lower redoubt, you can just make out the earthworks on the inside.  This one had very narrow ‘trenches’ and little dead ends big enough to fit one or two people.  We speculated what the vegetation must have been like.  It doesn’t say anywhere but if scrub surely the trees would be right up to the edge of the walls? 

180 of the upper redoubt – the bigger of the two.   

Here’s Paul playing soldiers.

The earthworks are really impressive, amazing survived this long.

Just so interested. Well it was really, I’m just not as interested as Paul.