Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
See below for English translation
PART 2
Ka rewa te hokowhitu a Torekāhe. He rangatira anahe. E rua ngā amokura o te pōkaitara nui. Ki a Torekāhe te rau o Ngāti Te Whetu. Ko Te Rangikotua ki a ia te rau o Tūhourangi o Ngāti Whakaue hoki.
Ka takahia te huarahi mā Rotokawa, mā Tikitere nā wai rā ka puta ki Manupirua ka puta ki te moana, mā te ākau te ope tauā ka tae ki Pāhinahina ki te whakatakoto kokoti. E whakapae ana ngā rangatira taihoa rā ka puta ngā rangatira ki te hao inanga.
Ka hī te ata kai te hao inanga ngā rangatira o te pā. Ka oti i a rātau te hao ka uta te waka me tā rātau kupenga ka huakina te ope tauā, ka mate ngā rangaira o Ngāti Pikiao i te tauā toto. He ahakoa ka mate te nuinga o rātau kai te oma hoki ētehi he whakaaraara i te hunga o Pāhinahina. Ka maranga te tini o te Pā. Kai runga kai te pari e tū ana.
E kore e tāea e te matua ki te whakaeke i te pā. He kaha teitei nō ngā pari. Ka noho a Torekāhe me Te Rangikotua ki te whakatakoto rautaki e horo ai te pā maioro. Ka wāhingia te ope tauā. Ka kōkiringia te pane o te pā e te ope matua, ara, ko te ope a Te Rangikotua, ka piki ake i te kōhamo o te pā e te ope tauā a Torekāhe.
Ka huakina te riri e warea kau ana te tini o Ngāti Pikiao ki te rau o Te Rangikotua e whakapōhane nā i te wahatieke o Pāhinahina. Owhiro ki te pō ka kakea te pari e te rau o Torekāhe. Ka hoe mā te moana kai te taha whiti o te pā e tataku haere ana kia kāua ia e kitea e te pā.Ka kite atu e ia he pōhutukawa e tungou ana me te pakeke hoki o ngā peka.
E toro whakatemoana ana etehi o ngā peka matotoru. E noho pōhēhē mārie ana a Ngāti Pikiao. Kai te kā ngā ahi, e tūtei ana ngā manuao, kai te warea tonutia ngā kanohi o ngā manuao ki te waha tieke o te pā-whakairo.
Kātahi ka whakahaua e Torekāhe āna toa ki te herehere i ngā taoroa ki kotahi tao roroa. Ka tikina atu e rātau ngā whītau ka whakaherea ngā tao. Ko te arenga o tētehi ki te reke o tētehi, ā, nā wai rā, nā wai rā kia rite te roanga ki te teteinga o te pari.
Ki te tihi o te pou roroa nei ka herea rawatia te matau, hai pupuri i te peka o te pōhutukawa. Ka kukumea kia ita, ka kukumea kia mau, ka kakea te pou roroa e Torekāhe tae rawa kei te komata o te pou roroa. Ka tomokia e ia ki te pā o te hoa ngangare.
Kai te kōnihi haere a Torekāhe ka tae ki te tumu o te pōhutukawa. Ka kitea he taura roroa, mātua ka patua e ia tana mataika, ko te manuao o te pā kua warea ki te moe.Ka herea te tupapaku ki te taura ka tukuna e ia te ika ki tana ope e whanga mai nā ki te pūtake o te pā.
He ahakoa e tūtei tonu ana ngā manuao o te pā e warea katoatia rātau ki ngā whetū rereata. Kai te herea e Torekāhe te taura ki te paiaka o te pōhutukawa e tautau ana ki raro.
Ka kake ake tana toa tuatahi, ka aruhia tenei e te tuarua, e te tuatoru, ā, tae katoa ai te ope kei te tihi o te pā. E tuturi ana te hokowhitu ka maranga a Torekāhe me tana whakaaraara pā, he pōhēhē nō te pā ko ā rātau manu tūtei kē e waha ana.
Nā te tika o tana iere ka kawea tonuhia te whakaaraara e ngā manu tūtei o te pā. Ka oti i tana whakaaraara ka kawea tonutia e tetehi, e tetehi. Ka roa e pēnei ana ka kotihi mai te ata. Ka rere anō te reo o Torekāhe; Te ahi ra ra, te ahi ra ra, tahia ki uta, tahia, ko au ki tai, e i a ha ha!
Ka kōkiritia te pane o te pā e Te Rangikotua, ka maranga hoki te pā ki te riri, e warea katoatia te rau o Ngāti Pikiao ki te pane o te pā, e kūware ana ki te hiku me te tauā a Torekahē. Kīhai i hamama ngā mangai o te ope tauā a Torekāhe, ka āta papatu i a rātau ngā rangatira o te pā. Te tahuritanga mai o te pā ki te kōhamo, kāore he titiro ki te ao marama.
Kua riro kē rātau ki te ana korukoru o Hinenuitepō. Ka hinga te tūwatawata i a Te Rangikotua, kai te kiritai ngā toa e riri ana. Ka hinga a Pāhinahina i ngā rangatira o Torekāhe me Te Rangikotua.
He iti anahe te hunga i ora, he tini o te kāinga i maonga ka mauria mai ki te aroaro o Torekāhe ka ea te patunga o ōna tuahine.
PART 2
Torekāhe speedily raised an armed force of 170 men: His matua or company of 70 men, (hokowhitu) were the pick of his tribe, Ngati-Te-Whetu.
The remaining 100 men, were from the Tuhourangi pas of Motutawa, Te Puia (Whakarewarewa), and Owhatiura, under the command of his comrade Te Rangikotua.
They marched by way of Rotokawa and Tikitere, to Rotoiti close to the pohutukawa where the hot sulphur spring Manupirua bubbles up.
They travelled by night and lay in ambush near Paehinahina for fishermen from the fort to come down to draw their seine for inanga (whitebait).
Early in the morning the men of Ngati Pikiao came in their canoes to net the inanga. Torekāhe’s warriors seized the net as it was being dragged ashore, and attacked their enemies.
Some of the fishermen were killed, and the rest fled in their canoes to raise the alarm at Pae-hinahina. Ngati Pikiao gathered within their cliff-top stockade to take stock.
The pa was too well defended for a direct attack so Torekāhe and Te Rangikotua had to devise a strategy. They split their men into two parties with Te Rangikotua’s 100 men to make the frontal attack, and Torekāhe’s 70 to wait to scale the walls secretly.
The main body, yelling and doing the haka, advanced boldly and took up a position on the ridge leading to the front gateway of the fort.
That ruse worked and all the eyes of the pa were trained on the warriors at their front.
A dark moonless night helped Torekāhe’s scheme and he led his hokowhitu to the north-eastern side of the pa where they hid.
Torekāhe posted his men under a large pohutukawa. The pa was full of excitement of war that night—watch-fires blazing, war-trumpets braying, chiefs shouting speeches of encouragement and instruction to their men.
Torekāhe instructed his followers to take a number of their spears and splice them firmly together with flax cords so they formed a long pole the height of the cliff and hooked it over a pohutukawa branch.
To check it was secure, Torekāhe climbed the pole of spears, into the tree and then crawled cautiously along the branch and down into the pa of his enemies.
Quite close to the butt of the pōhutukawa, stood a lone hut where an old man with a partly plaited flax rope slept by the door. Torekāhe clubbed the man to death then tied his body with the rope and lowered it to his men. The old man was the mata-ika, the “first fish” slain.
Dawn was approaching, and the sentinels were chanting to the morning stars.
Torekāhe tied his end of the flax rope to the pōhutukawa, and his men stealthily ascended into the pa.
When Torekāhe raised his voice in a sentinel-song or Whakaaraara-pa, the people of the pa thought he was one of their sentries.
This, translated, is part of his song, an “All’s-well” chant to Tariao and Kopu, the first and morning stars:
There was a pause, and then a sentinel in another part of the pa, all unknowing of the fact that the singer who had just ended his loud chant was an enemy, lifted up his voice in a song of his own.
When he had ended, Torekāhe sang a second watch-song; and then when grey dawn was just approaching, and it was necessary to give the pre-arranged signal for the assault, he chanted loudly his third whakaaraara. These were the words: Te ahi ra ra,
Te ahi ra ra,
Tahia ki uta,
Tahia!
Ko au kai tai,
E-e-i!
Aha-ha-!
In this chant Torekāhe addressed his comrades as “The fires burning yonder,” and warned them to gather on the land side and sweep down on the pa. “Sweep it!” he cried, “Here am I by the waterside.”
In another moment Te Rangikotua had given his men the order to charge—“Kokiritia!” and they dashed with fury at the stockade of their foes.
The garrison rushed to defend the main gateway and the stockade. Then Torekāhe, in the rear, made his attack. In the resultant confusion, the front matua swarmed into the fort, hacking their way through and over the stockades and gateways, and joined with their cliff-climbing comrades in the work of slaughter.
Paehinahina fell. Many of its garrison went into the ovens of the conquerors, and many others were made slaves; and thus quickly did Torekāhe avenge the slaying of his sisters by the cannibals of NgatiPikiao.
