Moturoa Battlefield Memorial

Titokowaru started building a pa here. A one hundred metre long stockade and firing trench with three strongpoints.

Colonel George Whitmore attacked the position in November 1868 with some 250 Armed Constabulary and 300 Whanganui Maori under Kepa. After an assault in which about a dozen men were killed or wounded Whitmore ordered a retreat - Titokowaru's men pursued them almost as far as the Wairoa Redoubt at Waverley. Only one of Titkowaru's men was killed while the attackers casualties were put at 19 dead and 20 wounded.

There is a 1993 memorial to the battle, just south of the pa site. It was unveiled on 7 November 1993, the 125th anniversary of the battle. It is a plaque with two rocks either side surrounded in post and rail fencing in a cow paddock on the side of Braemore Roade.

The memorial records the names of the casualties, including Te Waka Tapa Ruru from Titokowaru's side. Three 'New Zealand Crosses' were awarded to John Roberts, Henare Kepa Te Ahururu and Major Keepa Te Rangihiwinui, but all up it was a monsterous defeat for their side.