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OPOTIKI - A BRIEF HISTORY This was the home of the Whakatōhea tribes, whose lands extended from Kutarere in the west, to
Opape in the east, and for many miles inland.
From Tirohanga to the Waiaua River, the beach and sandhill area was frequently a battle-
ground. In one encounter here in the 1820’s named Peangatoetoe, the sea ran red with blood
when Ngāti Maru invaders from Hauraki, armed with firearms, inflicted heavy losses on the
local Whakatōhea.

Peketutu, below Motu Falls.
ADVENT OF THE EUROPEAN
Captain Cook sailed along this coast on 1st/2nd November, 1769, naming Cape
Runaway, White Island and Mount Edgecumbe as he did so. He commented
in his journal on the dense population of the coastal area. One can visualise it today.
The chain of earthworks along the entire escarpment from Ohiwa Harbour
in the west to Opape in the east gives evidence of occupation by large numbers. The
earliest white arrivals told of the large fishing camps at Paerata; a net 1.5 km in length
was used by Māori at Tirohanga and would supply the requirements of a tribe for a year at one
haul.
Missionaries from Tauranga made an abortive attempt to reach Ōpōtiki in 1828. They
were dissuaded when, on landing at Ohiwa, they walked into the carnage of a just-concluded
battle between Ngātiawa of Whakatāne and Whakatōhea. Rev. John A. Wilson of the Church
Missionary Society arrived at the end of December, 1839, and is recorded as the first white
man in Ōpōtiki, then called Pakowhai. His mission was established on the hill above the
present golf clubhouse, the Roman Catholics followed two months later in March, 1840.
In May of the same year, seven Ōpōtiki chiefs became signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi,
a copy having been brought here for that purpose by the Governor’s agent, James W. Fedarb.
Crosses appear against the names of the chiefs; namely Tauatoro, Rangimatanuku and
Rangihaerepo. In a notation at the foot of the Treaty, Fedarb states: “The Chiefs of Ōpōtiki
expressed a wish to have it signified who were Pikipos (i.e. Roman Catholics) and who were
not, which I did by placing a crucifix preceding the names of those who were, at which they
seemed perfectly satisfied.”
Aporotanga, one of the chiefs, was subsequently killed at Matata in 1864 by Te Arawa.
From 1840 to the 1860’s missionary activity was pursued on a somewhat precarious basis.
Although there is little known of their activities, the traders and whalers were becoming active
on the coast during this era also. Te Kaha and Waihau Bay in particular, eventually became
bases for whaling.
But it took the hostilities of the 1860s to initiate Pākehā settlement on a significant scale.
CONFLICT OF RACE
It was almost inevitable that the pressures of Pākehā settlement should be resisted to the
stage of open warfare. In Ōpōtiki the flame was ignited in March 1865, when the missionary
Volkner was killed. Despite warnings to stay in Auckland, he insisted on returning to his
church of Hiona – still standing in Ōpōtiki’s main street, now known as Hiona St Stephen –
when the local Māori became influenced and inflamed by the religious and political doctrine
of Hauhauism. Because of his reports on the movement of the Hauhau emissaries, Volkner was
regarded as a Government spy and paid the penalty.
His death induced the Government to send a punitive expedition to Ōpōtiki in September
1865, and from the time of its landing there was a continuing campaign waged throughout the
surrounding country. The campaign increased in intensity when Te Kooti escaped from the
Chatham Islands in 1868, and his association with this area continued off and on until his final
56 surrender at Waiotahi in 1889.