Although Titokowaru provided the strategy and leadership that had been missing among tribes that had fought in the Second Taranaki War and his forces never lost a battle during their intensive campaign, they mysteriously abandoned a strong position at Tauranga-ika Pā and Titokowaru's army immediately began to disperse.

Cross-section of firing positions at Tauranga-ika Pā, 1869. Titokowaru used those five weeks to demonstrate his hold on the Wanganui hinterland, burning farms and abandoned military posts and driving off stock, but also laboring over the fortifications at Tauranga-ika until it became one of the most formidable modern pā ever built.

Titokowaru responded by following him, establishing an elaborate fortification for his 400 warriors at the Māori village of Tauranga-ika close to the Europeans ' military base and just 29 km, or a day's march, from Wanganui.

Whitmore professed no regret that Tauranga-ika had been taken without resistance: " My object was to gain possession of the district and if I could do this without loss and without putting too heavy a strain on my raw troops they would be encouraged.

* Trooper William Lingard, Kai Iwi Cavalry Volunteers, Tauranga-ika, 1868.

* Sergeant Christopher Louis Maling, Corps of Guides, Tauranga-ika, 1868.

The settlement was founded on 24 August 1864 and named by Colonel William Moule after Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton, the popular Scottish commander of HMS Esk, who was killed in the battle of Gate Pā, Tauranga.

Māori established separate tribes, built fortified villages ( Pā ), hunted and fished, traded commodities, developed agriculture, arts and weaponry, and kept a detailed oral history.

The New Zealand Government acted to prevent the petition being presented to the monarch, and the visit to Japan on the way back from Europe created allegations of disloyalty and of flying the Japanese flag over the church settlement of Rātana Pā.

Labour Party ministers and MPs attend the annual celebrations at Rātana Pā on the date of Rātana's birth.

These main centres are surrounded by thirty-eight rural settlements, including Clive, Haumoana and Bridge Pā.

The attack on Puketapu Pā was typical of Māori-British warfare.

Puketapu Pā and then Ohaeawai Pā were the first of the so-called “ gunfighter pās ”, built to engage enemies armed with muskets and cannons.

Pā like these were built in the dozens, particularly during the First Taranaki War, where they eventually formed a cordon surrounding New Plymouth, and in the Waikato campaign.

At Gate Pā, during the 1864 Tauranga Campaign, Māori withstood a day-long bombardment in their bomb shelters.

Belich estimated that Gate Pā absorbed in one day a greater weight of explosives per square metre than did the German trenches in the week-long bombardment leading up to the Battle of the Somme, but this has been challenged by military historians.

The Northern War involved many major actions, including the battle at Russell on 11 March 1845 and the Battle of Ohaeawai on 23 June 1845 and the siege of Ruapekapeka Pā from 27 December 1845 to 11 January 1846.

H M S North Star destroying Pomare's Pā, 1845.

When they arrived at Pomare's Pā, the chief himself came down to see what all the fuss was about and was promptly made prisoner.

Encouraged by the apparent success at Pomare's Pā the next target of the British forces was Heke's Pā at Puketutu on the shores of Lake Omapere, some 30 kilometres inland from the Bay of Islands.

Col Hulme and his second in command Major Cyprian Bridge made an inspection of Heke's Pā and found it to be quite formidable.

In this engagement, the Battle of Puketutu Pā, the British suffered 14 killed and 38 wounded.

A week later, on 15 May, Major Bridge and three companies of troops attacked Kapotai's Pā on the Waikare Inlet which they could reach easily by sea.

After the successful defence of Puketutu Pā on the shores of Lake Omapere, Hone Heke returned to his pā at Te Ahuahu, a major residential settlement a short distance from both Heke's Pā at Puketutu and the site of the later Battle of Ohaeawai.

Although it was now the middle of the southern winter, Lieutenant Colonel Despard insisted on resuming the campaign immediately with troops from the 58th and 99th Regiments, naval marines and a detachment of artillery they sailed across the bay to the mouth of the Kerikeri River and began to march inland to Ohaeawai where Kawiti had built formidable defences around Pene Taui's Pā ; the inner palisade, 3 metres high, was built using puriri logs.

The British troops arrived before the Ohaeawai Pā on 23 June and established a camp about 500 metres away.

The reality of the end of the Battle of Ohaeawai was that Te Ruki Kawiti and his warriors had abandoned the pā in a tactical withdrawal ; with the Ngāpuhi moving on to build the Ruapekapeka Pā from which to engage the British force on a battle field chosen by Te Ruki Kawiti.

Gate Pā was the single most devastating defeat suffered by the British military in the whole of the Māori Wars.

To contemporaries Gate Pā was seen as a shattering defeat.

Gate Pā is the name given to a fortress the Māori built only 5 km from the main British base at Tauranga.

Colonel Greer continued the campaign by conducting patrols in strength with 594 men of the 43rd Regiment and 68th Regiment On 21 June he came upon a force of about 500 Māori building a new Pā at Te Ranga, some seven kilometres from his base.

Ngati Kahungunu were searching for his base beyond Lake Waikaremoana, leaving their Pā at Mohaka vulnerable.

Gate Pā was the name of a Māori Pā or fortress built in 1864 only from the main British base of Camp Te Papa at Tauranga, during the Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Land Wars.

Disgruntled by this lukewarm response, Te Kooti and his people, maybe by now as many as 800, returned to Tokaanu on the southern shore of Lake Taupo on 18 August, and then a few kilometres further south to Te Porere five km south west of Lake Rotoaira, where he began to build himself an earthern gunfighter style Pā.

In 1831 he took the major Ngāi Tahu pā at Kaiapoi after a three month siege, and shortly after took Onawe Pā in the Akaroa harbour, but these and other battles in the south were in the nature of revenge ( utu ) raids rather than for control of territory.

Finally they built a strong Pā, a fortress or defensive position only 5 km from the British camp.

The British troops arrived before the Ohaeawai Pā on 23 June and established a camp about 500 metres away.

The simplest Maori Pā, the Tuwatawata, generally consisted of a single wood palisade around the village strong hold, and several elevated stage levels from which to defend and attack from.

The capture of Ruapekapeka Pā can be considered a British tactical victory, but it was purpose-built as a target for the British, and its loss was not damaging ; Heke and Kawiti managed to escape with their forces intact.

General Cameron was an able commander of the Imperial forces ; in his past experiences, he witnessed the cost of making a frontal assault on a defended Pā and he was concerned with the safety of his troops.

The reality of the end of the Battle of Ohaeawai was that Te Ruki Kawiti and his warriors had abandoned the pā in a tactical withdrawal ; with the Ngāpuhi moving on to build the Ruapekapeka Pā from which to engage the British force on a battle field chosen by Te Ruki Kawiti.

Other Māori tribes of New Zealand became aware of the techniques used in the design of the Ohaeawai Pā in order to blunt the effectiveness of cannon and musket fire and to create firing trenches located within the inner palisade and communication trenches linking to ruas-shelters dug into the ground and covered with earth.

Hongi Hika, a famous or infamous chief depending on whether one fought with or against him, is reputed to have fathered the child of a captured slave at Kororipo Pā.

In May 1845 Heke's Pā at Puketutu on the shores of Lake Omapere ( sometimes called Te Mawhe Pā ), was attacked by troops from the 58th, 96th and 99th Regiments with marines and a Congreve rocket unit, under the command of Lt Col William Hulme.

After the successful defence of Puketutu Pā on the shores of Lake Omapere, in accordance with Māori custom, the Puketutu Pā was abandoned as blood had been spilt there.

Tāmati Wāka Nene built a pā at Okaihau in the days that followed that battle at Puketutu Pā, the warriors of Heke Tāmati Wāka Nene fought several minor skirmishes with the warriors of Heke and Kawiti.

The capture of Ruapekapeka Pā can be considered a British tactical victory, but it was purpose-built as a target for the British, and its loss was not damaging ; Heke and Kawiti managed to escape with their forces intact.

The Taranaki iwi Ngāti Mutunga presented Ngāti Toa with Pukewhakamaru Pā, as well as with the cultivations nearby.

Battles during the Flagstaff War ( also known as ' Hone Heke's Rebellion ') were fought around Kaikohe: at Hone Heke's Pā at Puketutu on the shores of Lake Omapere ; followed by a battle at Te Ahuahu ; with the warriors of Te Ruki Kawiti fighting the Battle of Ohaeawai.

The " most " sophisticated Maori Pā was called a Pā Whakino, which generally included all of the parts of other Pa features, including more Food storages, water well storages, more terraces, ramparts, palisades, fighting stages, Outpost stages, underground dug-posts, Mountain or Hill summit areas called " Tihi ", defended by more multiple wall palasades with underground communication passages, escape passages, underground maze-fighting passeges Pa, with elaborate Maori traditionally carved entrance ways, and artistically carved main posts.

The Māori used to form fences of their fortified Pā with the dead whekī trunks.