G Lane

That doesn't feel like heaps.

It doesn't feel like heaps, but at the time they were armed with guns, remember?

And they had gunboats in the mighty Waikato.

That's a severe advantage.

Now, despite eventually occupying parts of the big pa here on the left when we go up here.

Disgusting.

They held out overnight.

But eventually they lost.

They surrendered.

But the British leadership under General Cameron, Duncan Cameron.

He later admitted the strength of the position had been massively underestimated.

Yeah.

And unfortunately, once Rangariri fell, the rest of the Waikato fell as well.

So why did they want the Waikato?

Well, it led directly to the occupation of Narawahia further on, which is the seat of the Maori King movement, which was quite crucial to the colonising British who weren't the friendliest of peeps.

No.

Well, it's not a great story because vast areas of the Waikato were then confiscated under the New Zealand settle.

Yeah, there's a lot of that still going on, isn't there?

Yeah, so thousands of people now drive past this site each and every day, Mashi, often without realising its significance.

Absolutely.