Wharetaewa Pa Site

James Cook and Joseph Banks observed and described the earthwork fortifications of this pa site when they called in Mercury Bay in 1769 to observe a transit of Mercury. Fortifications were designed to prevent the attackers being able to engage in hand-to-hand fighting but make them susceptible to spear thrusts or projectiles such as stones or darts. The pa is on Ngati Hei ancestral land.

For the 250th anniversary of this event, a book, When Toawaka met Cook, was published. It offers an alternative theory to the prevailing narrative about the dominating and conquering Pakeha, saying the chief might have welcomed the opportunities that came with the visitors, after decades of bloody warfare with neighbouring Iwi.