Mapoutahi Pa (Goat Island Blueskin Bay) (4506262890)

Te Mapoutahi or simply Mapoutahi is a peninsula on the coast of

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

, New Zealand, between the townships of

Waitati Waitati, from the Māori Waitete, is a small seaside settlement in Otago, New Zealand, within the city limits of Dunedin. It is located close to the tidal mudflats of Blueskin Bay, 19 kilometres north of the Dunedin city centre. The small Waitati ...

and

Pūrākaunui Pūrākaunui (formerly spelt Purakanui) is a small settlement in Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is located within the bounds of the city of Dunedin, in a rural coastal area some 25 km to the north of the city centre. Pūrākaunu ...

, within the limits of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

City. It lies some north of Dunedin's city centre. Known also, confusingly, as "Goat Island", the peninsula's narrow isthmus and rugged coastline made it the perfect defensive location for a ''

pā The word pā (; often spelled pa in English) can refer to any Māori village or defensive settlement, but often refers to hillforts – fortified settlements with palisades and defensive terraces – and also to fortified villages. Pā sites ...

'', a fortified settlement. The headland was, indeed, occupied by a

Kāti Māmoe Kāti Māmoe (also spelled Ngāti Māmoe but not by the tribe themselves) is a historic Māori iwi. Originally from the Hastings area, they moved in the 16th century to the South Island which at the time was already occupied by the Waitaha. ...

pā during the century before the arrival of Europeans in the early 1800s, and was the site of a major massacre in around 1750 when the warrior Taoka attacked the fortifications and killed those within.McFarlane, R.K.,
The massacre at Mapoutahi pa
, ''New Zealand Railways Magazine'', 1 January 1939. Retrieved from

NZETC The New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC; mi, Te Pūhikotuhi o Aotearoa) is a freely accessible online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials that are held by the Victoria University of Wellington Library ...

11 September 2019. The peninsula is now a scenic and historic reserve and is the site of a popular walking track. The adjacent beach, Mapoutahi Cove, is used by

naturists Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...

for nude walks and sunbathing. New Zealand has no official nude beaches, as public nudity is legal on any beach where it is "known to occur".

The massacre at Mapoutahi Pā

Chief Taoka was based at a ''kaika'' (small settlement) near what is now

Timaru Timaru (; mi, Te Tihi-o-Maru) is a port city in the southern Canterbury Region of New Zealand, located southwest of Christchurch and about northeast of Dunedin on the eastern Pacific coast of the South Island. The Timaru urban area is home ...

. He had visited his nephew (some sources say cousin),

chief Te Wera, at the latter's pā,

Huriawa Huriawa, commonly known as Huriawa Peninsula or Karitane Peninsula, is a headland on the coast of Otago, New Zealand. It is located 35 kilometres north of Dunedin city centre, immediately to the southeast of the settlement of Karitane. The penins ...

, near the mouth of the

Waikouaiti River The Waikouaiti River is found to the north of Dunedin in Otago, New Zealand. It flows to the Pacific Ocean at Karitane, close to the town of Waikouaiti. The Waikouaiti River is the largest in East Otago East Otago is the name given to that p ...

. The two set out to visit another relative, Kapo, and while staying with him they began a heated argument. The argument developed into a fight, during which Te Wera killed Taoka's son. Taoka returned to his kaika and summoned a war party which laid siege to Huriawa for a year without success. Taoka then moved his party south to attack Te Wera's chief ally, Pakihaukea, at Mapoutahi. Pakihaukea's guard was relaxed and Taoka struck, climbing the palisades in the dead of night and massacring the 250 people found within. So great was the carnage that the name of the nearby settlement of

(literally, "wood piled up") refers to the sight of the bodies which had been piled in a huge heap outside the pā.

The massacre at Mapoutahi Pā

References

Further reading